Yugioh GX TNG
by NightFall-sensei
Summary: Welcome back to Duel Academy. New Monsters, New Spells, New Traps, but all the same thing. Follow the adventures of a young girl who may know more than meets the eye. Along with an entire MotleyCrew of dueling companions. OCs being accepted inquire within
1. Fate in the Stars

Here's my attempt to make a decent Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic. This is all OC and based around the situations in Yu-Gi-Oh GX (manga and anime situations along with my own original ideas). Please no flaming and like my Pokémon story I would appreciate it if you would give me ideas for OCs. Now please give these as PMs so that we can keep it a surprise for all the readers. This will require work in the fact that you will have to think of a 40 Card deck at least with archetype names, monsters, spells, and traps along with any Synchro and Fusion monsters you have also if you find it necessary tell me which cards are doubled or tripled. For the record I am not accepting decks with Exceed monsters. Just to shake things up I will not be having my OC be the main character. See if you can scope him out throughout this fanfic. Enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

Duel I: Fate in the Stars

Lively; if there were one word to describe that room it would be lively. But then again it is the largest dueling academy in the country and maybe perhaps the world. In the north corner were professors, proctors, and other staff and administration; the south corner was full of duelists waiting their turn to prove themselves skilled enough to be accepted; the east and west corners were filled with alumni, actual students and friends of family of the applicants. In the lower area were separate stalls for the duels to be played out in with duels of every kind going on and triumphs along with failure.

"I activate the Spell card, Smashing Ground! Sorry, spook, but now your monster goes to the Graveyard because of it having the highest defense points!" the proctor announced triumphantly.

The applicant chuckled maliciously, "Do you honestly expect me to give up after that weak tactic? Spell card activate, Mythic Revival!" he called out as a spell card activated bringing his shadow-clad monster back to the field. "Now finish him, Kyuu Kasai!"

A set of glowing orbs appeared out of darkness and simulated the orbs piercing the proctor's soul. The proctor fell back as his Life Point gauge dropped from 1700 to 0. He grunted while returning to his feet and saw the applicant leave the room with a seemingly evil grin.

"I summon, Egyptian Spirit Anubis!" another applicant called out. "Go, Judgment Break!"

The hologram of the Egyptian god slashed through the proctor's monster and finished off his Life Points from 1000-0.

"Congratulations, you pass applicant." The proctor said neutrally.

"Humph…" the young boy responded with a thumbs-up to his proctor.

More duels continued to go on like the previous two with some ending in the applicant's defeat. Those who had completed their duels took their place back on the risers. The two duelist from before sat back down unknowingly next to each other the looked at each other and stayed in silence as the final applicant arrived for the day. She was girl about as old as the first applicant making her slightly older than the second.

"What do you think will happen?" the younger boy asked.

"Why do you care?" the older asked back. "It's not your duel, nor is it mine."

"True, just thought it would be nice to ask." The younger boy said coming into full view.

He was young, that much was true, but immature wouldn't be the word. Mostly clothed in dark clothes with symbols all over them and a hood covering his dark brown hair and almost covering his dark blue eyes. The older boy wore a pair of dark blue jeans, a black jacket over a dark green shirt, and just above a pair of dark amber eyes and near ghost-white hair.

"Today's final duel will be between this young lady, and I believe this to be our own Professor Nakamura, head of the Ra Yellow dorm! Good luck to you both, and begin!" the emcee called out.

"What does he mean by 'Ra Yellow'?" The younger boy asked.

"The dorms are split into colors represented by the Egyptian God Cards, Slifer Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue. Each one represents how skilled of a duelist you are compared to everyone else, and how much of an academic you actually are. Take these two into an account and that's your dorm for the year." The older explained.

Down on the dueling floor the two duelists took their position with the professor beginning things off.

"State your name young lady." He commanded.

"Destiny." The girl said plainly.

The girl was by anyone's standards rather beautiful; wearing a pair of shorts reaching down to her knees, a pink t-shirt, a light blue jacket, green eyes, long black hair, and a strange necklace with twelve different symbols decorating it.

"Well, Destiny, let's start! My draw," the proctor surveyed his cards and chuckled, "and I'll begin by playing Sea Guardian Poseidon in attack mode (1700/1200). Next I'll play two cards face-down and end my turn. Your move, miss."

"Thank-you, and I'll start off by playing my Zodiac Aries in attack mode (1800/1000)." A transparent ram sprang from the card onto the field with several stars seemingly making up its body. "Now I'll activate Aries' effect; when I Normal Summon him I can select and destroy 1 Spell or Trap card you have out on the field."

"Interesting…" the proctor said but in his mind said, _"Too bad one of these cards is a decoy meant for young amateurs like you. She may have a 50/50 chance but that doesn't negate the fact that duelists always go for the card closest to the deck."_

"Aries, destroy the one behind the monster!" Destiny called out.

"What? No!" Nakamura cried out as Aries literally incinerated the card.

"Now Aries attack his monster, Celestial Burn!" Destiny called out while Aries charged the other monster ramming into it and reducing it to tiny shards flying in the wind.

Nakamura's Life Point meter dropped from 4000-3900. Destiny smiled but then saw the trident the monster was holding flying directly at her dropping her gauge by the same amount.

"Wait did I miss something?" the younger boy asked.

"Just Poseidon's ability. Should it be destroyed by a Fire monster, your opponent takes the same amount of damage that you did. But what's even more intriguing is that girl's deck. Now I'm interested." The older one explained.

Destiny grunted slightly and flipped her head back up, "I'll play two cards face-down and end my turn."

"My move!" Nakamura said pulling his card out of the deck. "Now I activate my face-down card, Aphrodite's blessing, should my opponent take damage from an effect I can gain the same amount of Life Points that my opponent took as damage." The trap card activated regaining all of his lost Life Points back to 4000. "Next I'll summon up my Divine Black Smith Hephaestus (1000/2000) in defense mode!"

"My turn!" Destiny called out drawing the top card from her deck. "First I'm activating the Spell card Solar Alignment, now anytime we Special Summon it's treated as a Normal Summon, along with that I'm also activating the Spell card Lunar Alignment, now just as before anytime we Flip Summon it's treated as a Normal Summon. Now I summon Zodiac Leo (2000/0) in attack mode!" a lion similar to Aries jumped out of the card and let out a large roar. "When I Normal Summon this card one of my Zodiac monsters can attack my opponent directly, granted it can't be Leo. Aries, do your thing, Celestial Burn!"

Aries charged the proctor hitting him while completely ignoring the defense position monster and dropping the Life Point gauge from 4000-2200.

"Now for a little extra attitude, I activate my Trap card, Jupiter's Rage! When I control two or more fire monsters on my side of the field I can instantly add one of their attack points to the other one. Leo, take Aries' attack points and strike down that over grown metal worker with Cosmic Cruncher!"

Leo, now at 3800 attack points, charged and destroyed the other monster while Nakamura began chuckling.

"Now I activate Hephaestus' ability; when he's destroyed by a monster with more than 2500 attack points I can automatically Special Summon my strongest monster, Divine King Zeus (3000/2400) in attack mode!"

The large imposing figure of Zeus shadowed the field making everyone slightly impressed.

"So what's so special about this guy?" the younger boy asked.

"Simple, this next turn Destiny's field will get completely destroyed. The turn after Zeus is summoned, a player can discard their entire hand to destroy all cards on the field except for Zeus." The older asked still leaning in the back of the chair.

"Now that it's my turn, Zeus destroy everything on the field!" Nakamura said as he sent all his cards to his Graveyard Zeus summoned a lightning bolt destroying the two Zodiacs on the field and was becoming almost a seizure hazard.

"Now Zeus attack!" Nakamura called out as Zeus summoned another bolt of lightning and sent it down on Destiny.

Destiny stood there without haven taken any damage. She smiled at the professor gaining surprised from everyone including the two boys in the risers.

"What gives?" Nakamura asked as the smoked cleared revealing a Trap card disappearing. "Huh?'

"See when ever Celestial Barrier is destroyed I can choose to negate any effect or battle damage that would come to me in this next turn. Let's just say I saw that move coming." She said winking.

"I end my turn, you saved yourself for this round but next time you won't get so lucky." Nakamura said.

"Why are you here dueling me?" Destiny asked.

"What?"

"I asked why are you, a noted professor, dueling a simple applicant like me." Destiny asked again.

"I think we can safely assume that you are not just a normal applicant." Nakamura said in defense.

"You didn't know that before you dueled me. So why did you want duel me? Taking orders from higher authority or did you duel me because you don't want me here?"

Nakamura became more and more nervous as Destiny continued.

"I believe you don't want me here because I was either late or because I scored the lowest on the placement test. Tell me, am I getting warm? Or is it because those teachers don't want a girl with a past like mine at their school; prone to trouble?"

"T-that's not it…" Nakamura began and then looked at the floor and at his own hands.

"Well, never mind that, let's end this."

Nakamura looked back up at her with a confident smile and rejoined the duel at his best, "Like you can even hope to destroy the mighty Zeus, it should be noted that this monster can't be destroyed by an effect, so you'd have to find something stronger than it to beat it."

"Yeah right, I summon Zodiac Gemini (1500/1500) in attack mode. Now I attack Zeus with Double Strike. Also it should be noted that when Gemini is Normal Summoned that his attack point are doubled instantly."

The twin constellations gained a red aura doubling their attack points and attacking Zeus destroying the giant deity as well as the twins and forcing dropping Nakamura's gauge from 2200-0.

"Now I know I missed something. What gives now?" the younger boy asked.

"When Zeus is destroyed by battle the user of the card takes damage equal to attack points of the monster that destroyed it, aka 3000. I must say, I'm glad I stuck around. That girl is going to be huge at Duel Academy, and maybe a good rival." The older boy said getting up and walking away.

The younger boy watched as he left and back down at Destiny as she was blowing kisses to the crowd and looked down at her necklace and thought to herself, _"Thanks guys."_

Chapter 1 complete. Tell me what you think, and send me a private message if you want to see you made up deck on this story. P.S. No one-shot kill cards, 'kay? Until we meet again on fanfic, Sayonara.

Next time: Duel Academy registration, not just a campus tour but a battle between the Zodiac's and what appears to be the Curse of King Tut, what's Destiny gotten herself into this time. Be sure to read the next chapter: Pyramid Party: Zodiacs v. Egyptian Spirits.


	2. Pyramid Party

Here's chapter 2 of my new Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic. This time a duel between two forces of legendary proportions; Ancient Egypt against Astrology.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

Duel II: Pyramid Party; Egyptian Spirits v. Zodiacs

As the helicopter blades cut through the air most of the applicants who had won their duels were excitedly looking out at the volcanic island. Two of which being Destiny and the young boy from the duels before with the symbols lining his clothes. The third person, the older boy who looked more like a demon, stared at the two of them with cold eyes.

When the helicopter landed the new students went onto the island with Destiny, and the two boys bringing the rear. Inside the building the new students were given blazers divided into three colors; red, yellow, and blue just as the older boy explained the dorm situation.

Destiny and the two boys found themselves clad in red. The three walked together to the dorm to find it was more like a hotel that needed a visit from the board of health. Destiny smiled at the other two gaining a smile from the younger boy and an indifferent look from the older boy. Inside the dorm the three found the entire building empty save an old man living on the bottom floor with a computer on his desk.

"Dorm head." The older boy said.

The three inspected the dorm to find no sign of anyone their and decided which room would be occupied by which person. Destiny gained the room directly above the dorm head; the younger of the two boys got the dorm to the right of her, while the older boy took the dorm farthest from the other two. The three spent most of the day moving in to their rooms when they heard a bell ringing and looked out their doors to find the dorm head calling them down for dinner.

At the dinner table Destiny and the younger boy took a seat in front while the older boy sat near the back. The old man came in stroking his long beard and looking at the three students.

"Hello, children. My name is Professor Ninomiya, and I would like to take this opportunity to get to know all three of you. To be honest I haven't taught in 20 years so I'm a little out of practice. Let's start with you on the end." The old man explained.

"My name is Destiny; I have a real obsession for fortune telling and astrology." Destiny slightly embarrassed at telling her interest.

"I'll make sure to stock up on newspapers. Now you young man." Ninomiya said.

"_Like I didn't see that comment coming."_ The boy in the back thought.

"My name is Amun, I've spent a lot of time overseas in Egypt, so I gained accelerated learning from the University at Cairo, and I find a large favor in Egyptian mythology." The younger boy said.

"And now you, in the back." Ninomiya said towards the boy in the back.

"Name's are meaningless, just call me Tao. I don't have a particular interest in much of anything." He said keeping his head propped on his head on his arm.

"Well, for now let's enjoy each other's company" Ninomiya said and then turning to Tao, "for the most part."

Tao shot him a cross look and got up to leave.

"You'll be found out eventually." Ninomiya whispered to him.

"Yeah, we'll see about that." Tao whispered back.

"What was that about?" Amun asked gorging himself with the bento prepared.

"Don't worry about it. Y'know you two should duel tomorrow." Ninomiya said changing the subject.

"Hmm, why?" Destiny said with a full face of rice.

"Things like truth always come out when it comes to dueling. Well what do you say? Are you two tough enough to duel with each other even though you're new to each other?" Ninomiya asked.

"As if you need to ask." Destiny said.

"I'm all for it." Amun said and the three went back to their rooms.

Alone in his room Tao stared at the wall contemplating, _"She would've gone for the card closest to the deck, it's an idiosyncrasy it doesn't make sense. What is that girl? I won't rest I figure it out. I need a catalyst to bring that power out."_

Tao's train of thought was interrupted by Ninomiya when he entered the room.

"What do you want, old man?" Tao asked slightly annoyed.

"Just wanted to tell you that Destiny and Amun were going to be dueling tomorrow on the area in front of the dorm. Just thought you'd be interested." He said leaving after telling him and smiling to himself.

"_Perfect"_

The next morning Ninomiya and Tao watched the two challengers from the deck on the dorm. Tao watched both duelists intently as more students began to draw a crowd around the two duelists, but none would go near the dorm itself. Ninomiya raised his hand and brought it down initiating the duel to begin.

"Duel!" the two said in unison as two Life Point gauges both read 4000.

"Ladies first." Amun offered.

"Fine I will. Draw! I summon Zodiac Tauros (600/2000) in defense mode! And when this card is normal summoned I select two monster card zones and as long as this card remains on the field you can't use them for anything! Next I'll play a card face-down and end my turn."

"Clever, but now it's my draw. And I summon Egyptian Spirit Ammit (1800/100)! Next, I play face-down cards and activate the Field Spell card Tomb of the Pharaoh!"

The area around the two duelists changed to a large pyramid with an open chamber leading into it.

"What is that?" Destiny asked.

"_Nothing good for you."_ Tao thought to himself.

"We'll worry about that later. For now it's your turn, Destiny."

"Fine, draw!" Destiny declared.

"And now the effect of my Tomb of the Pharaoh activates. I can discard one card and then I select one card in my hand and you guess whether it's a Spell, Trap, or Monster card if you guess right I take one thousand points of damage, but if you guess wrong than you have to discard all the cards in your hand that are the same type of the card I chose." Amun said.

"_Just what I needed."_ Tao thought._"Show me your power, Destiny; show me you have the power that I am seeking. If you have that strength to see past the surface, then you should be able to see it without even breaking a sweat."_

Destiny stood there for several seconds and looked around and saw Tao staring down at her through the simulated desert. She closed her eyes and opened them after several seconds.

"…Spell…" she said after hesitating.

"_Idiot"_ Tao thought.

"Sorry, this is a Trap card. Now any Trap cards in your hand are automatically discarded." Amun said as he discarded a monster card from his hand.

Destiny discarded two cards in her hand and looked at her other cards in her hand. Tao stood up straight and began to leave when Ninomiya put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't leave yet." He said with hard eyes.

"She doesn't have the power I'm looking for."

"Maybe because she needs a more powerful catalyst. Remember, when she used it before she was up against a very powerful spirit. Maybe Amun needs to summon his powerful spirit of the desert."

"Amun. He is the advent of the pharaoh who ruled in that time isn't he?" Tao asked.

"You would think so, but the pharaoh of Seti never would have an advent, but maybe a different spirit dwells inside him. These people aren't like you, they don't know." Ninomiya said.

"They will, if I ever have anything to say about it." Tao said.

Back to the duel Destiny pulled one of the cards in her hand and summoned it in attack mode.

"Zodiac Scorpio (1700/1000), and like my Taurus it prevents you from using two of your Spell or Trap cards zones. Now I activate the Spell card Solar Alignment, now any Special Summon counts as a Normal Summon instead. I end my turn."

"Fine, now to show you the true power of ancient Egypt. Draw! Now, I activate the Spell card Osiris' Second Chance! According to legend Osiris was the god of the underworld and therefore this card has the power to free an Egyptian Spirit from that bond Osiris has on it."

"But you don't have any monsters in the Graveyard." Destiny stated.

"Think again, when I activated my Tomb of the Pharaoh I had to discard a card, and now I'll resurrect that monster. Egyptian Spirit Anubis (2800/2000), rise from your grave."

The ground below Amun began to break around him and out of it jumped out the Egyptian lord of the dead. Anubis took a fighting stance as the monster put a chain around Ammit.

"What's with the pet on the leash?" Destiny asked.

"Whenever Ammit and Anubis are on the field at the same side of the field both of their effects activate; Ammit destroys a monster while Anubis negates the effect of Taurus to absolutely. Ammit, sick 'em!" he commanded as Ammit jumped up and chomped down on the Scorpio destroying it into multiple shards. "And Anubis, free me from the bonds of that overgrown hamburger!" he commanded to his other monster as it jumped up and sliced through one of Taurus' horns negating the effect. "Now I activate the Spell card Pyramid Reaction!"

"_With that Destiny's final move will have to be her greatest yet."_ Tao thought.

"With Pyramid Reaction one of my Egyptian Spirits gains an effect that whenever I attack a defense mode monster you take the difference between my monster's attack points and your monster's defense points." Amun explained. "So now, Anubis attacks Taurus and now you'll take the damage. Judgment Break!"

Anubis sliced through the astral bull and went right into Destiny's Life Points from 4000-3200.

"Now, Ammit attacks your Life Points directly. Soul Cruncher!"

Ammit launched itself in the air and attacked Destiny directly dropping her from 3200-1400. Tao continued to glare at the two duelists and looked back over at Ninomiya.

"You're going somewhere with this?" Tao asked.

"Wait for it. Destiny has this duel won."

"How do you know?"

"Take a look at her eyes."

Tao looked over at Destiny whose eyes seemed to be more and more confident.

"The spirit." Tao said.

"Exactly…" Ninomiya said in affirmation.

"Guess it's time to turn up the heat." Destiny said rather confidently.

"That is if you can get past my Tomb of the Pharaoh. What is this card?" Amun said dangling the card in front of him.

"You think you could make things a bit harder? Because the card in your hand is like every other in your hand; monster." Destiny said.

"Humph, guess you're right. So now I take the damage." Amun said as his Life Point gauge dropped from 4000-3000. "Looks like my greatest barrier is my greatest destroyer.

"_Spirits are the catalyst. Now to find the source of her power."_ Tao thought to himself.

"Now I summon Zodiac Sagittarius (1900/1000), and when this card is Normal Summoned I can automatically destroy one monster whose attack is less than or equal to itself. Sagittarius, take out that Ammit, Fire Arrow Disintegration!"

Sagittarius took aim and shot an arrow straight into the center of Ammit destroying into the small shards.

"Now I activate the Trap card Star Gazer Path. With this card I can bring one Zodiac monster from my deck that is the same attribute as the one on the field. So I bring my Zodiac Leo to my hand and now I'm gonna finish this with this Spell Card, Celestial Fusion. With this I can fuse Zodiacs together for my greatest companions. So I fuse three Zodiacs; Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius to make the Celestial Emissary Ignis (3000/2500)!"

The three Zodiacs began spiraling throughout the sky and came back as one giant monster made entirely from stars, magma, and fire spouts.

"When I summon I select one card in your hand, say that extra Ammit monster in your hand and now you discard it, and now all monsters you control are destroyed! Ignis, Magma Rage!"

The giant volcano spouted out a flame that landed on the Egyptian lord and reducing it to nothing.

"You may have destroyed my Anubis, but try and get past this, Scarab Ruby!" Amun said as a Trap card revealed itself as a black ruby. "With this I take no damage after one of my Egyptian Spirit monsters is destroyed by an effect."

"Sorry, but this is over, Neptune's Tsunami!" Destiny said revealing another trap card with a swirling vortex of water. "With this I automatically negate the effect of any Trap card at the cost of half my Life Points." As her Life Point gauge dropped from 1400-700. "Now, Ignis, Celestial Eruption!"

The large monster shot out another spout of magma that fell on Amun dropping his Life Point gauge from 3000-0. Amun kept a strange smile on his face as he took Destiny's hand when she offered it.

"To tell the truth, I was hoping you'd get that card wrong so I could've won." Amun said.

"Well, you can't win 'em all." Destiny said. "But I had fun indefinitely."

Tao looked at the two of them and smiled to himself maliciously._"To think, I've searched my whole life for people like them and now I'm so close and they were from the same school I went to so long ago. Just you wait, this isn't over."_

The two raised their arms up in achievement while Ninomiya applauded and noticed Tao gone into his room.

"I think this year will be the most exciting one ever in the history of this school. I wish the three of you the best in life, and now to get some tea."

Chapter two complete. Remember to send in those ideas for the OCs I can use later on, and keep them as private messages to keep everything secret.

When a beauty queen gets a bone to pick with one of the Slifer dorm members it will show a dark side of the dorm and maybe a light side to it at the same time. Next time: By Light and Shadow; Tao v. Magick. Until next time, sayonara.


	3. By Light and Shadow

Since people out there have already taken a liking to my Yu-Gi-Oh story out there, why not continue. So we're back at Duel Academy and now we're going to see what happens when you tick off the wrong people and we're going to see who's watching even the best from the shadows. Today it's two opposite sides of a spectrum, in more ways than one, Tao v. Magick.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

Duel III: By Light and Shadow; Tao v. Magick

Morning, at the Slifer Dorm that only means one thing…breakfast! Destiny, Amun, and Tao all walked down the stairs at different speeds to get to the breakfasts already prepared by their dorm head, Ninomiya. The three had been at Duel Academy for about a week and were already becoming accustomed to living there, at least the meal situation. Tao, like always, brought up the rear in a sleepy fashion. When he got down he noticed one small change to the meal room…only one table.

"_That old man is dead."_ He thought to himself.

"Ah, Tao. I see you found my latest renovation." Ninomiya said with a smug grin.

"This is far from over, old man." he said taking a place right next to Amun.

The three stayed in silence since the other three hadn't really talked to Tao since his arrival. Ninomiya sighed and hit his face with his palm and tried to strike up a conversation.

"So, Tao, tell us where you come from." He said.

"Here and there. When I lived with my parents they traveled around a lot so I never got to stay in the same for more than two years." He said still eating.

"So you must have some pretty interesting stories about all those places." Destiny said getting interested.

"Define 'interesting'."

"Like fighting off wild piranhas in the Amazon rainforest, or trying to take down a Yeti in the Himalayas." Amun said as an example.

"I've had experiences with monsters if that's what you mean. My parents are both crypto zoologists so most of the places we go are where they've been known to be spotted." Tao explained.

"What's a crypto zoologist?" Destiny asked.

"A scientist who studies the existence of unexplained creatures and tries to prove they're real like the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the aforementioned Yeti." He explained again.

"You don't believe in those things do you?" Destiny asked.

"Let me show you something" Tao began lifting up his sleeve. "You see this scar? Well, in an area of the Unites States called Point Pleasant, West Virginia is a creature said to be human in shape but with a seven foot wingspan. It's known as the Mothman. Now whenever this creature is seen it is normally attacking stray dogs for food. And I decided to help a dog once. The Mothman attacked me and gave me this scar from its wing. I've had it checked there're still traces of a moth-like wing substance in the scar of this arm. You try to explain that to me."

Destiny's, Amun's, and Ninomiya's eyes grew wider. Tao gave off a slight smile and went back to eating. Still shaken up Ninomiya quickly changed the subject.

"So have all of you cast your votes yet for the Miss Duel Academy competition?" he asked.

"Yep, voted last night on the computer." Destiny affirmed.

"Yeah, voted for that Obelisk Blue student, Reika. For some reason it just came to me in the middle of the night." Amun said.

"Not me. Those kinds of things don't interest me." Tao said still eating.

"Why not? I mean you gotta admit, Reika, by more than a few people's standards could be considered quite beautiful." Amun explained.

"You could say the same about Destiny but I didn't vote for her either." He said putting his bowl down. "Besides, Reika isn't so beautiful when you put her under a microscope. She's more of a witch than anything."

"Okay, that was uncalled for!" Destiny said.

"I didn't mean it as an insult I mean she actually practices black magic. Her deck reflects that."

"How would you know that, Tao?" Amun asked.

"Simple, while I may not like to I check the computer every now and again and I thought checking the candidates might be a good laugh. Based on everything said on her profile Reika could very well be considered a user of black magic."

"Interesting theory Tao, but how do you know that?" Ninomiya asked with a near frenzied look in his eye.

"I have my ways, now if you'll excuse me I have to get ready for classes. See ya."

The other two Slifer reds looked with concern at their third member and left to get ready for school. On the way Tao met up with some rather unnecessary comments about the red dorm.

"I know why you're basically alone, it's because no one cares!"

"Maybe you're too stupid to hear us!"

"Nah, those other Slifers probably rotted his brain! Hah-"

Just as the Obelisk blue student was about to laugh Tao picked him up by the collar with one hand over his head. Looking up at him Tao basically gave him a death gaze and spoke to him for all to hear.

"You can say whatever you want about me, I've been hardened by more than you can imagine, but if you ever say anything about the other Slifer red dorm members you will have me to deal with and given you're current position that doesn't seem like a good thing for you." He said before he was about throw him across the street.

Just before another Obelisk student placed a hand on his shoulder and eased down the other student. The Obelisk looked Tao straight in the eye and smiled forcing Tao to let him go.

"Why did you do that? He needed to be taught a lesson in respect." Tao said looking up at the Obelisk.

"Probably, but you made your point across the second you picked him up. If you want respect, try doing it through your own respect and not fear."

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Tao asked looking at the male.

"Jason. You can call me Jason. See ya 'round, kid." The boy said.

"Intriguing…" Tao said walking up to the school with a small hint of evil in his voice.

Walking into the classroom Tao met up with Destiny and Amun as they seemed to be waiting for him.

"Heard you had a bad run-in with one of the first-year Obelisk." Destiny said.

"Should've known; the three fastest ways of communication, telephone, telegram, tell a girl." Tao said sarcastically.

On their way to class the three met up with Reika, the aforementioned candidate in the Miss Duel Academy competition, in the hall as she began seemingly charming every boy in sight. Tao slapped his face with his palm and walked right by her carrying a fainted Amun. Reika turned around and saw Tao talking to Destiny about the situation this morning and how he seemed unaffected by anything.

"Girls!" she commanded as her hired helped came around her. "Who is that?" she asked pointing at Tao

The first pulled out a file and read it to her, for want of a better name, boss.

"Tao, a freshman currently in the Slifer red housing development. Only things of note are an increased adrenaline rate when stressed, a scar on his right shoulder supposedly caused by a modern monster in West Virginia, USA known as the Mothman, and had lived in a wide variety of places other than the area we currently reside at this academy."

The second pulled another file on his dueling history.

"In application duels defeated the proctor without losing a single amount of Life Points while keeping his monster completely hidden."

"Wait, _monster_?" Reika asked.

"As of his dueling history in this academy he has one win and zero losses and an average summon rate of once per duel." The second hire hand finished.

"Until now, but he too will be placed under my spell." Reika said giving off a pompous laugh.

In the class Tao set Amun in his seat as he began to wake up.

"What happened?" Amun asked.

"You fell head over heels for that witch." Tao said sitting down in his seat.

As class began Destiny and Amun looked over on the other side of the room at Tao who still seemed slightly sleepy. Halfway through class the students were dismissed for the results of the Miss Duel Academy competition, but by this time Tao was already asleep. After waking Tao up he walked drudgingly towards the announcement hall completely disregarding Reika on the side striking a pose. After Tao walked by a vein popped in her head, and then went onto to the next area heading him off. This time striking a pose to kiss him Tao turned the corner towards the drinking fountains making Reika fall on the floor and another vein popping.

"That idiot!" Reika screamed at the top of her lungs as her eyes gained small tears in the corner.

In the hall the two finalists gathered in front of the students; from the left Destiny and Reika struck a pose for the purposes of the competition while Tao had just reached the announcement hall. The emcee took his stand and then announced the votes for who was decided to win.

"With 4,899 votes, Miss Reika is our champion!" the emcee announced with Destiny clapping for her opponent. Oh, hold on folks. It seems we have a tie. Miss Destiny also has accumulated 4,899 votes, so congratulations to the both of you-" he said before Reika grabbed him by the collar and lifting him up.

"What do you mean it's a tie!" Reika asked angrily as she shook the emcee back and forth.

"It means that there was at least one student who didn't vote…" The emcee said about to lose his breath.

Reika took the microphone and shouted into it, "Alright, who decided they didn't want to vote!"

Everybody looked around the room to find Tao raising his hand and walking up to the podium to meet with Reika. He kept a very solemn look on his face and stared right into Reika's eyes.

"I take it you want me to vote for you?" Tao asked.

"Huh?" Reika asked in surprise.

"Don't bother; those things don't work on me." Tao said as though he knew Reika was aware of what he was talking about.

Ninomiya walked up to the both of them and made the suggestion for a duel.

"I'm good with that." Reika said. "But what about this boy. Maybe the fact I'm an Obelisk scares him."

At that moment Tao snapped and reached out for her when Destiny shouted in protest.

"Don't hurt her?" she said as Tao lowered his hand.

Reika began panting out of fear when Tao turned to face her.

"We duel now!" he declared. "I win, this contest is voided by my choice, but if you win than I will vote for you."

"Deal!"

In the school's main dueling hall the stands were packed. On the one side was the Obelisk blue and Ra yellow dorm male members cheering for Reika with most of the female student body on the side. On the side behind Tao were Destiny and a tied to his chair Amun who had still been charmed by Reika. Before the due an Obelisk blue sat down next to Destiny and asked if he could watch the duel with them.

"Who're you?"

"Just call me Jason." The student said.

Ninomiya lifted his hand and brought it down beginning the duel.

"Duel!" the two said in unison.

"Ladies first" Reika said. "And I summon Magick Enchantress (1600/1000) in attack mode." The monster appeared out of the card and gave a slight wink to everyone on the field causing them all to go into a near shock of infatuation. "Next I play two cards face-down and end my turn. Go on, little boy."

Tao opened his eyes for the first time since the duel began and drew his card. "I summon Yang Spirit-Seiryuu (1800/1600) in attack mode. Now I activate his effect, when this card is Normal Summoned I can automatically Special Summon another monster from my hand with the word "Yin" in its name. So I summon from my hand Yin Spirit-Suzaku (1700/1000). Now comes the fun part. Whenever Suzaku is on the same side of the field as a Yang monster I can destroy one of your Spell or Trap cards once per turn. Suzaku, Magic Burn!" The giant phoenix breathed a large breath of fire and obliterated the Trap card face-down. The attendance in the stands booed him for destroying the card with him ignoring it. "Now Suzaku, attack Yin Burner!" the phoenix let out another fire stream which was stopped by the enchantress on the other side.

"Sorry, kid, but whenever my Magick Enchantress is attacked by a opponent who controls more than one monster I can sick your monster onto one of your other monsters with a boosted 500 attack points, and you take the difference between the two monsters attack points as damage." Reika explained with another pompous laugh.

"Seiryuu, intercept!" Tao commanded as the dragon looked into the eyes of Suzaku and negated the effect. "See, whenever one of my Yin monsters is targeted by an effect I can automatically negate it should I also have Seiryuu on the field. So my attack still goes through."

Suzaku turned back to the Spellcaster and destroyed it in an instant dropping her life points from 4000-3900.

"Now, Seiryuu. Attack, Wood Disruptor!"

The green dragon pushed its body on the ground and forced a montage of sharpened tree branches to rise and attack Reika dropping her life points again from 3900-2100.

"Next I play a face-down, and end my turn. Your move, witch." Tao said.

The crowd continued to boo Tao as Reika began her next turn with a quaint smile on her face.

"Alright, I summon Magick Sorceress (1900/200) in attack mode. Now I activate her effect allowing me to take control of a light monster you control. So come to your new master Seiryuu."

The female mage pointed her staff and shot a beam at the dragon monster bringing over to her side of the field. Right when Seiryuu reached the other side of the field both it and Suzaku exploded.

"What the-?" Reika exclaimed.

"Did I miss something?" Destiny asked.

"Yep, when a Yin monster is on the field and you control no Yang monsters it's destroyed right then and there and the same goes for Yang monsters. The deck of the Tao culture is an extremely dangerous and time consuming deck to master. Your friend Tao knew that if one was destroyed so would the other that's why he didn't react to the ability of Magick Sorceress. The only question is, what's he gonna do now when he has only that face-down card against that kind of a monster?" Jason explained.

"No matter, you're still defenseless. Sorceress attack, Charming Magic! _If this doesn't put you under my spell I don't know what will._" Reika said ending with that thought.

The sorceress shot a beam in the shape of a heart at Tao and it hit him dead-on dropping his life points from 4000-2100. He opened his eyes and narrowed them onto Reika.

"Is that the best you can do, witch?" he asked as though unaffected by whatever Reika did to him.

"Why aren't you being charmed by me, or my monsters? Look at those idiots over there, slobbering like stray puppies that had just gotten a decent meal. Why doesn't it ever work on you?" Reika asked furious at Tao.

"Because I can never allow anyone to get to close to this!" Tao shouted. "When I was attacked by that monster I thought I really would die, but you know what happened? I fought back and I became so hardened by that I became a monster myself. I can never fall in love because of what I do to people.

"Now it's my turn" he said drawing his card. "And I activate the Spell card Mythic Revival to summon Yin Spirit-Suzaku from my graveyard granted its ability is negated. But now I summon Yang Spirit-Byakko (1500/1600) in attack mode. Now by his effect I also summon the Yin Spirit-Genbu (1000/2000) in defense mode. And now while I control Genbu and another Yang monster I can Special Summon one of from my graveyard once per turn. So come on back Yang Spirit-Seiryuu!"

The four monsters from the right; Suzaku the phoenix, Seiryuu the dragon, Byakko the tiger, and Genbu the tortoise all looked at Reika.

"They don't scare me. To anyone this is just an over glorified zoo. What are they gonna do, destroy my monster? Ha, fat chance!" she said boastfully.

"Wu Xing" Tao said.

"Huh?" Reika said.

"Wu Xing is the natural border between Yin and Yang. All the time we live on that border, but sooner or later we step off into Yin or Yang. I still live on the Wu Xing Border and now I will show you it's manifestation, since I control two Yin monster and two Yang monster I can Special Summon Huang Long-the Spirit of Wu Xing (2800/2400) in attack mode!" a large yellow dragon sprang up from the card and stared right into Reika's eyes. "Now I activate my Trap card, Yin Yang Combination. I can sacrifice all Yin and Yang monsters on my side of the field to destroy an equal amount of cards in your hand. So send four to the graveyard and destroy your hand." Tao finished.

"You're going somewhere with this?" Reika asked.

"For every Yang monster in my graveyard, Huang Long gains five hundred attack points." The attack point reader read 3800 instead of 2800. "And for every Yin monster in my graveyard your monster _loses_ five hundred attack points." The attack reader for the sorceress then read 900 instead of 1900. "Now attack, Borderline Crusher!"

The dragon pounded its tail on the ground creating a huge amount of rock and debris that pummeled the sorceress and the rest of Reika's life points from 1900-0. Reika fell to the ground as the male student body return to normal. Tao offered her his hand and she slapped it aside.

"Anger is the destroyer of fools; compassion is the healer of the wise. I declare this contest voided by my choice! See ya 'round, witch." He said waving goodbye from behind.

As Tao left Destiny sat there in silence at the amount of power that that dragon gave off. Jason got up to leave and smiled down at Tao.

"You three are definitely going to make this year the best year ever for some of us. See ya 'round, kids." He said waving goodbye much like Tao had just.

"_What is Tao? Is he some sort of monster, or something different?"_ Destiny thought touching her necklace.

Chapter three complete. Thanks for Jason; he'll be used next chapter. Also, thanks for the other OCs sent to me as they will be used in later chapters.

It's a duel against the days of chivalry when Jason comes to meet with the Slifer dorms favorite divination girl. Next time: By Oath of the Sword; Knights of the Round Table v. Zodiacs


	4. By Oath of the Sword

Here's chapter 4 of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. This time a duel straight from the times of chivalry, Knights of the Round Table v. Zodiac.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

Duel IV: By Oath of the Sword; Knights of the Round Table v. Zodiac

As the figure walked in silence towards the building he smiled slightly while the wind blew his black bangs in front of his red eyes. His long Obelisk blazer revealed his solid black shirt underneath, and covered the top part of his blue jeans. He continued to the dorm while holding onto a small parcel. He knocked on the door and placed the parcel on the doormat and quickly walked away and hid behind a tree. A few seconds later the dorm head for the Obelisk dorm saw the package and picked it up. After a few moments after opening it the contents flung themselves towards him in a flurry of whipped cream.

Off in the distance the figure's subtle laughter could be heard by the dorm head who began heading for the tree. After turning full circle around the trunk the dorm head became oblivious to the figure holding himself on the branches hanging lower than the others and just inches from the dorm head. A bead of sweat almost dropped from his head when he subtlety flung it behind him still making him invisible to the dorm head.

Off in the distance Destiny, Amun, and Tao were walking towards the scene when Destiny, humming a repetitive song, noticed the figure holding himself on the branch.

"Hey, Jason! What're you doing up there?" she said waving to the figure as the dorm head looked up and gained an evil grin on his face.

Jason jumped off the tree and ran towards the three Slifers and grabbed Destiny and Amun by their arms and ran off leaving Tao at the "mercy" of the Obelisk dorm head. The dorm head grabbed him by the collar and began to threaten.

"Alright, where're they headed to?" he said keeping a grip on Tao's Slifer blazer.

Tao's eyes dilated and he grabbed the dorm head's hand and flipped him over his head. Tao looked down at the dorm head and kneeled down next to him as he was halfway crippled.

"How good is Jason?" he asked.

"What?" the dorm head asked.

"I said, how good of a duelist is Jason compared to the other Obelisk?" Tao asked again this time pushing on his head.

"Top of any class in field dueling, why?" the dorm head said struggling.

"I have my reasons…" Tao said letting him go and leaving for the dorm.

Back at the dorm Jason and the two Slifers were feasting on the lunch Ninomiya prepared for them when Tao entered and took one of the bentos prepared. Sitting next to Jason he began eating and between bites glared at Jason unbeknownst to him. After eating Jason left and thanked Ninomiya for his hospitality.

Jason reached the dorm and found a note stuck in his dorm telling him to go inside and to expect a call at midnight. Jason looked around and saw no one so he went into his dorm and sat on his bed going over a deck hidden in locked box. At midnight the phone rang and Jason picked it up to a voice he didn't know.

"Is this the 2nd year Obelisk blue student, Jason Knight?" The voice said in a warbled voice as into a voice changer.

"It is." Jason said.

"I want you to duel against one of your classmates. Specifically the one named Destiny." The voice said.

"Why should I listen to you? Why should I listen to the authority that has plagued me so much?" Jason asked the voice in defense.

"Because I know all about you, and your family. If you do not duel I know several people who would be willing to pay anything for this information. Chief of them being that gem." The voice said in a threatening manner.

"If you tell anyone about that gem I swear I will find you and use it on you!" Jason said.

"Then I suggest you duel Destiny, and don't throw the match I need to see your power when you're dueling at your full strength. Oh, and have the gem on you at the time." The voice finished and hung up.

Jason sat on his bed and put a hand on his head and sighed. Jason looked over at a bejeweled box that stayed locked. Jason placed his hand on the box and it opened in an instant. The box showed a blood red jewel which he put into his pocket. Jason closed his eyes and opened them again with blank eyes.

"In the morning, Destiny, we duel!" he said raising his fist.

The next morning, Destiny was walking up to the school building humming to herself with the other two Slifers right behind…by a good ten feet.

"If she hums that stupid song one more time, I'm gonna make sure she can't hum ever again." Tao said clenching his fist.

"Calm down, Jason's right over there and you know how he can get." Amun said.

Jason had his duel disk at the ready when Destiny ran into him. Destiny looked up when Jason offered his hand. Destiny took it and Jason bowed to her as though she were royalty.

"Okay, I'm officially freaked out." Destiny said.

"Something ain't right." Amun observed.

"Really, Sherlock, like we couldn't have gotten that ourselves." Tao said sarcastically.

"Milady, I request to duel against thee." Jason said raising his duel disk up.

"Say what?" Destiny asked still slightly confused.

"I asked thee for a bout of wit and skill in the popular fashion of this academy. Please honor my request milady." Jason said taking Destiny's hand.

"Just don't do that anymore." Destiny said taking back her hand.

"Whatever is thou speaking of milady?" Jason asked unaware of his speech pattern.

"Tao! Amun!" Destiny called.

"How's it going with Sir Lancelot, milady?" Tao said sarcastically.

"What's wrong with him?" Destiny asked.

Amun cleared his throat and lifted his voice, "Young squire, what thou mean by speaking in this manner of which is not spoken in?"

Tao and Destiny dropped their jaws in disbelief as Jason continued the conversation, "'Tis how I was born to speak, and milady must duel against me."

"Why?"

"For the sake of preserving the honor of my crest."

"Okay, what the heck?" Destiny asked.

"He wants to duel for the sake of his family's honor. See in a lot of European nations families all have a crest or a coat of arms that represents them so he wants to duel for the sake of his family."

"Okay, how do I say I accept this challenge in medieval England?" Destiny asked.

Amun cleared his throat again, "It shall be so. Her highness accepts your challenge."

The two other Slifers dropped their jaws again at Amun's speech pattern and walked towards the duel arena. As the duelists took their marks the other students began to swarm around the duel even with the teachers trying to stop the crowd. Ninomiya appeared behind the two Slifers and began the duel his normal way.

"Thou hast the beginning move." Jason said.

"Fine! For my turn I summon Zodiac Sagittarius (1900/1000) in attack mode! Next I play three cards face-down and end my turn. Go ahead, Sir Knight!" Destiny said.

"The turn be mine now! And for my turn I call forth Lancelot, Knight of the Round Table (2000/1000) in attack mode. Also, I invoke the ability of my knight of the round table, when summoned I am allowed to call forth another of my knights. So by this monster's ability I special summon Gawain, Knight of the Round Table (1800/1000) in attack mode." After summoning both monsters appeared as knights of the medieval time each with sword unsheathed. "And while this card remains face-up on the field all of my servants gain 500 attack points. Next I invoke the magic of the card Giant Trunade, with this magic I gain the power to return all Spell or Trap cards on the field to their owner's hand." A giant wind blew through the area and blew back all the face-down cards back towards Destiny. "Next I attack with my knight Lancelot, Legendary Sword!" the larger knight jumped up and slashed through the transparent centaur dropping Destiny's life point gauge from 4000-3400. "Next, my Sir Gawain attacks thee directly with Sword Justice." The shorter knight jumped up and slashed up against Destiny dropping her life points from 3400-1100.

Destiny gasped for air as she found herself on the ground with the pain from both swords still stinging. Her eyes widened when she came to a realization about those monsters.

"The pain…is real, isn't it?" Destiny asked Jason.

"My power shows thee many different things. So long as I have my power you will always feel the sting of my swords and you shall be able to burn it out of your mind." Jason said solemnly. "I play two cards face-down and end my own turn. Now 'tis your turn."

"Fine, my good knight. I summon Zodiac Libra (1700/1700) in attack mode!" Out of the card came a transparent set of scales. "And when this card is summoned and you control more monster I can destroy monsters until we both control the same amount of monsters. So I'm going to destroy your sir Gawain! Libra, balance those scales!" Libra launched itself at Gawain and destroyed in an instant. "Next I play the Spell card Celestial Rebirth! This brings back one of my zodiacs from the graveyard." She said bringing the Sagittarius card back from the graveyard. Now I play Celestial Fusion! Now I fuse Sagittarius, Aries, and Leo to summon Celestial Emissary Ignis (3000/2500)!" As the three zodiacs fused and became the lava monster used against Amun earlier. "Now I activate my monster's effect, I have you discard 1 card from your hand like the far left!" The card on the far left was revealed to be a Spell card. "Now, I gain 1000 life points" she said as her life point gauge rose from 1100-2100. "Now my Ignis will attack your Lancelot for quite a bit of hurt, Celestial Eruption!" The large monster erupted its flames and destroyed the Lancelot dropping Jason's life point gauge from 4000-3000. "Now Libra attacks you directly with Balance Bash!" the scale rammed into Jason dropping his life points from 3000-1300.

"What's with this guy?" Amun asked. "It's as though he actually thinks that this is tenth century England."

"It has something to do with that gem around his neck." Ninomiya explained. "It's said to be a gem from the actual sword Excalibur, and cursed that whoever is the possessor will be filled with the realization that they are still in the Dark Ages."

"Probably a better way of putting it is that the gem itself possesses the holder into believing it. Most likely that gem is filled with the spirit of one who lived in the time period and is now using the holder as a host like a parasite." Tao explained with his arms folded.

"I'll play a final card face-down and end my turn!" Destiny declared.

"Then the move be mine. Now from my hand I call forth yet again my Knight of Camelot Lancelot and by his ability I summon from my hand Percival, Knight of the Round Table (1900/1000) in attack mode. Also, by the effect of one of the monsters in my hand I can invoke him should I control a face-up Knight of the Round Table. Merlin, Wizard of Camelot (1000/1000) in attack mode." Two more monsters took the same side of the field as the burly knight, one another knight of a different size, and an aging wizard in a large robe. "Next I Synchro summon with all three of my monsters!"

"What?" Destiny exclaimed.

"A level ten Synchro?" Amun exclaimed.

"Interesting…" Tao said stroking the sides of his chin.

"I Synchro summon the king of Camelot; Arthur, King of Camelot (3000/2500)!" A large monster rivaling the size of the Celestial Emissary before it took the field and crowned itself with a golden crown. "Next I activate one of its abilities; when this card is summoned I can bring from my deck, hand, or graveyard the sword of the king, Excalibur!" Jason's graveyard began glowing as the spell card flew out of it and equipped itself to Arthur. "Now since this mighty sword is equipped specifically to Arthur he gains an extra thousand attack points." The attack point meter on Arthur rose from 3000-4000. "Next, I will end this with my Sword of Hero attack, Arthur strike down the Libra!"

The king began to move down to the quivering scales when Destiny intervened.

"I activate, Celestial Protection! When my opponent attacks a Zodiac, I con block it with one of my Celestial Emissaries! Go Ignis!" she said as the giant fire golem got in the way of the monster and was slashed right down the middle.

Destiny's life points dropped from 2100 back down to 1100. Destiny began panting again as she smiled and winked at Jason.

"Now I activate the second effect of Celestial Protection. Should my Celestial Emissary be destroyed by battle the turn I activated this card I gain Celestial Fusion back to my hand." She said as the card returned from her graveyard back to her hand.

"I end my turn and give the move to thee." Jason said.

"Fine, but now it's over. I summon Stargazer Pegasus (1500/1500) in attack mode! And whenever a Stargazer is summoned I can automatically gain to my hand a Zodiac with the same attribute as the Stargazer summoned. So from my deck I choose Zodiac Aquarius."

"Do what you want; I still hold the power of this mighty king!" Jason said holding up the gem from his pocket.

"Now, Amun!" Ninomiya yelled.

Amun lined up a sling shot and fired it at the gem forcing it to the ground near Tao who wrapped it up into a bag. Jason's eyes dimmed and reopened with full expression. Jason seemed oblivious to the duel when he noticed what was going on.

"Destiny are we dueling?" Jason asked.

"Huh? What do you mean; you've been basically schooling me until now." Destiny explained.

"I have? But I don't remember."

"So what?" Destiny declared.

"Huh?"

"So long as you're dueling who cares if you remember every little move you made. You're having fun right?"

"I always have fun when I duel. So you said something about 'until now' by the way this looks you're about to feel the wrath of my strongest monster."

"Not until now. I activate Celestial Fusion and fuse my Libra, and Aquarius and Gemini in my hand to fuse together Celestial Emissary Vente (2900/2700) in attack mode." A giant monster made almost entirely out of tornados appeared on the field. "Now I have to destroy a card on my side of the field and depending on what it is I gain a very special effect. I choose my second face-down card played at the beginning of the duel; another Celestial Fusion! And since I destroyed a spell card I gain control of your monster."

"What?" Jason exclaimed as Arthur walked silently towards the opposite field. "Truly, Destiny, even one of the best in the school doesn't hold a candle to you. I concede finish me."

"I guess it wouldn't be nice to leave you in suspense, Vente finish him! Vortex Nova!" the tornado beast began swirling towards Jason dropping his remaining life points to zero.

The students applauded for Destiny while some of the teachers began to whisper amongst themselves. Amun walked back up to Tao for a bit of feedback.

"Out of curiosity why did Destiny bother to bring back Celestial Fusion when she had another one face-down the whole time?"

"Two reasons; first she needed Libra on the field to summon Vente, second she needed the tribute of the spell card to gain control of Jason's monster to get him wide open for a direct assault." Tao explained.

"Yet she can't pass a test to save her life."

"Her prowess is used on the field not on paper like some of the people here. We all have a reason for being here. Destiny to become the best, you for the chance to come back home, Jason probably for the protection of this gem" Tao said holding up the bag.

"And then there's you" Amun said. "We still don't know why you're here. So when you gonna fold?"

"The next time the Sahara freezes over." Tao said walking away bouncing the bag up and down in his hand.

As he walked away Destiny and Jason began acting as though they had known each other for as long as any childhood friend.

"Well done, I truly believe that its duelists like you that keep this game fresh and new and in time we will find who the greatest in our school will be." Ninomiya said.

"We shall indeed…" a sinister voice said behind the crowd unbeknownst to the rest as the figure walked away in complete invisibility.

Chapter four complete. For the record Jason is an OC developed by another party, along with his deck for one main reason…this person is good! Arigato to the creator of Jason.

Halloween means a lot to some people, more so than others. When a new student gives even Tao the creeps can one of the other Slifers stand up because they know, "…that dark holds no fear to me." Next time: Who's Afraid of the new Spook?; The Scarab v. the Pumpkin


	5. Who's Afraid of the New Spook

Here's chapter five of my new Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. So now it's a Halloween party that reveals more than most should. Pasts, fears, and maybe a bit more. When you duel this new transfer student be ready to duel against your worst fears. Egyptian Spirits v. Halloween

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

Duel V: Who's Afraid of the New Spook; The Scarab v. The Pumpkin

An eerie sensation began to creep over the academy as the night of Halloween drew ever so closer. Several students around campus had begun plans for the annual costume party and contests. Surprisingly enough even the Slifer red students were allowed to participate in the volunteer work without any insults. But what really made the icing on the cake was a new transfer student pending her dorm placement.

She was about as tall as Destiny if not a bit shorter, but still taller than Amun, but that ain't saying much. She had long black hair with orange highlights held up in pigtails, a long black dress, and a necklace with a design resembling a Jack O Lantern. All the students in the generic classes commented specifically on her height relative to just about everyone in the school disregarding Amun.

"She looks like what, five feet four inches?" one student said.

"So in other words she's really, really short." Another said in agreement.

After those words the new girl snapped and jumped up grabbing the two by their collars.

"I'm not short!" she said in a rage shaking the two students back and forth.

"She's got a point." Amun said from afar.

The girl tightened her grip on the two and looked right over at Amun.

"In relation to another person she could be considered about as tall as anyone else." Amun said propping his head up on his hand.

The girl dropped the two causing them to collapse in a heap. She walked over to Amun and seemed to be blushing calling Amun's attention. Amun looked up at her and kept a confused look on his eyes.

"There a problem?" Amun asked.

The girl raised her arm and placed it on his shoulder. Amun looked at his shoulder with the girl's hand on it and then back at the girl. Amun's looked stayed confused as he stood up at maybe five inches shorter than her. Amun quietly removed her hand and walked back towards the Slifer dorm.

Along the way the new student kept a watchful eye on Amun while following him all the way to the dorm. Amun stopped several times to find what he thought was someone following to find no one there. He paused momentarily and shrugged his shoulders arriving at the door. After entering Destiny, Jason, and Tao were seen decorating the dorm for a leg of the Halloween party's scavenger hunt.

"So how goes it?" Amun asked.

"Okay so far, but Tao's not pulling his weight." Jason said looking over at an overly depressed Tao.

"What's wrong with him?" Amun asked.

"Helps that I don't see a point in Halloween after the attack by an actual monster and having to do battle against an actual witch." Tao explained slowly stringing skulls. "Also, the whole premise for the holiday is pointless; people dressing up as something that they aren't so they can obtain unnecessary sweets and other junk."

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" the transfer student yelled out through the door skidding right in front of Amun and Tao.

"You must be Amun's stalker." Tao said rather frankly.

"WHAT?" she yelled out looking over at Amun.

"You weren't too subtle when you were following him on the way here to the point of border lining pathetic." Tao explained.

Destiny and Jason began chuckling to themselves as they went back to helping decorate. The transfer student saw the decorations and immediately lit up like a Christmas tree, or in this case a jack o lantern. Tao shuddered as the new girl began helping like a madwoman in decorating. After five minutes she was hardly panting after decorating most of the Slifer dorm herself.

"We didn't mean for you to it all by yourself." Destiny said bowing apologetically.

"It's no problem. By the way, I'm Locket Besquen." The girls said.

"So out of curiosity, why are you so interested in Amun anyway, I mean he's like thirteen." Destiny asked.

"Since when did I say I was interested?" Locket asked.

"Didn't have to, we're both girls so why someone like him instead of say Tao or Jason?" Destiny reiterated.

"I guess I like the feeling of somebody recognizing that in relation I'm not exactly that short." Locket said with a large smile.

"So you got a thing for short guys, huh?" Destiny asked.

"I guess you could say that, but out of curiosity what's with the kid? I mean a lot of people look at me and they think I'm this evil witch." Locket explained.

"First of all, don't say anything like that to Tao. Second, I still don't know a lot about Amun other than the fact he's studied abroad all his life in Egypt. Maybe he's used to seeing really weird things so in reality, to him, you're as normal as any other student here." Destiny explained.

"So I have to find a way to get to know him better." Locket said and started thinking. "Out of curiosity what were you guys doing exactly?"

"We were decorating for a Halloween scavenger hunt and our dorm was being used as part of the leg of the course." Destiny explained and then paused for a second and then the two smiled at each other. "You thinking-"

"-what I'm thinking?" Locket finished.

The two shook hands and went back to the dorm and finished decorating for the hunt…basically everything that was too high for Locket to reach. Amun stayed in his room with the lights turned off and stared at the ceiling. After several minutes he sat up with his eyes wide open as though he was in a nervous wreck. He quickly grabbed his deck and searched through it. After stopping at a certain card he sighed in relief and went to sleep for a quick nap.

"No one must know…" he said under his breath and then going to sleep.

After several hours Amun woke up just in time for the scavenger hunt to start. Ninomiya acted as the emcee and explained the rules.

"Each student will be paired with someone of the opposite gender. After finding a partner you will be given a list of what you must find, each list is different to keep things interesting. You must find all the items in order. There will be guides, aka students and staff who have volunteered to help with checking each list and disqualifying students should see it fit. The winners will receive a luxurious prize. The time limit is midnight, and for an added bonus each participant will stay in costume for the entire duration. Now find your partner and you will be sent out."

Many of the students went to similar people. Guys went to Reika (refer to chapter 3) wearing a generic witch costume, most of the girls went to Jason. Amun sat down in a large cloak with Hieroglyphics and sighed heavily when Locket appeared behind him in a dress with a pumpkin design on it and asked to be his partner.

"Sure, why not?" Amun agreed with a smile.

"Those two shrimps should be easy to take out." One of the students said when Locket heard them and snapped like she did earlier swinging them around and around while Amun had a sarcastic smile in the background.

Jason looked around in a suit of armor and found Destiny who was dressed like a queen who seemed to be looking for someone. Jason casually walked towards Destiny when she walked towards him but walked by him when she walked up to Tao, who wasn't in costume.

"Tao wanna be partners?" she asked with Jason fainting in the background.

"I don't see why you would want to, but fine." Tao said and then looked at Destiny's costume. "Cassiopeia, right?" he asked recognizing the costume.

"Yeah, I thought it would be nice to wear for Halloween and it looks like I was right." Destiny said.

The teachers began passing out the list while Amun smiled about the whole contest which made Locket smile as well. Tao had an indifferent look on his face while Destiny seemed excited about. Jason sighed heavily as he was forced to pair up with Reika. Ninomiya then shot a flare in the air beginning the contest sending the students out in frenzy chaos. Amun and Locket stayed in the same place as this was where their first destination.

The teacher approved them and they found the whole place empty. Amun placed his hand on the wall and motioned for Locket to give him her hand. Locket hesitantly gave him her hand and followed him while looking around to find the room completely pitch black. Locket giggled to herself making Amun look back.

"You really like Halloween, don't you?" Amun asked.

"Yeah, in Salem, Massachusetts you really learn to get into it what with the Salem Witch Trials taken place there. I guess there's always something to be afraid of but you just have to face up to it." Locket explained when she saw a solemn look on Amun's face.

"So out of curiosity how're you able to know your way around the dark."

"When I was six, I was trapped in the tomb of an ancient for three days. No one was coming for me under the pretense that I was dead so I found my own way out using the techniques that my dad taught me." Amun said. "Granted I can't get too angry about it. In those caverns were the forty cards that make my deck."

"Really? I made my deck out of cards that I made in this contest I won." Locket stated.

"For some reason I feel that no matter how you come into possession of your deck makes it all the more special to you regardless." Amun said with a smile.

The two began finding the items in each area and seemingly having a good time. Meanwhile, Tao had fainted after coming into close contact with a very realistic monster marionette with Destiny having to drag him back, and Jason and Reika completely in silence making no progress at all.

Back at the starting point all the students left conscious, so excluding Tao, the winners were declared as Locket and Amun. The two took the podium and the attendance applauded them and Ninomiya took the mic. Stroking his beard he looked at the two and gained an evil glimmer in his eye.

"For the prize, the two partners will duel each other for the prize to select the dorm in which they will be staying while the loser will stay in the red dorm."

"WHAT!" the two asked in unison.

The other students all let out sighs of relief so they wouldn't be forced into the red dorm. Amun looked over at Locket who began trembling and then lifted her arm to the sky.

"Let's duel, Amun!" she said pointing a challenging finger at Amun whose eyes dilated.

"Fine…" he said before letting his head down.

The two were led to a special dueling field made to look like a graveyard. Locket gained hearts in her eyes and ran towards the field in wild anticipation. Amun on the other hand became more and more nervous.

"Scared?" Destiny asked after setting Tao down.

"Yeah, for her…" he said solemnly and then leaving for the field.

Ninomiya started the duel and Amun had the first move.

"Alright, draw! Now I summon Egyptian Spirit Ammit (1800/100) in attack mode and play two cards face-down and end my turn. Your turn miss." He said as the alligator crossed beast took the field and roared at Locket.

"Alright, my turn! And I summon Black Cat (500/600) in attack mode as well. Next I activate the Spell card Ghost Fog to end my turn." Locket returned ending her turn as a spectral cat took the field as an eerie fog began to surround the field.

"What kind of a deck is this?" Jason asked standing next to Destiny.

"From the looks of it, a deck based around traditional symbols of Halloween" Tao said regaining consciousness. "More than likely her deck is based around the different monsters, animals, and spirits that are said to be rampant around this time of year."

Amun looked at her monster and scratched his head, _"It has no ability and barely any attack points why place it in attack mode and with no face-down just that continuous spell."_ Amun shrugged it off and took his turn. "My turn, draw! Now I activate the Spell card, Ancient Ahnk! With this I can instantly increase the attack points of any of my Egyptian Spirit monsters by seven hundred." Amun explained as a large ahnk sent a fury of lights raising Ammit's attack points to 2500. "Now it's time to give that cat it shots, Soul Cruncher!"

Ammit jumped into the fog to attack but froze in midair. Amun, Tao, Jason, and Destiny looked with surprise while Ninomiya stroked his beard in approval.

"Whenever a monster attacks and I have Ghost Fog out, I flip a coin, and if it's heads your attack goes through, if tails your attack comes right back at you." Locket said snickering. "Now, Ghost Fog, activate!" she said flipping a coin.

The coin landed in the middle of the fog and Ammit jumped into the air as soon as it hit the grass. Amun gained a frightened face when the giant alligator flew towards him and crunched his own master dropping Amun's life points from 4000-1500.

"Looks like you lost that round." Locket said stating the obvious.

Amun slowly stood back up and looked at her with no fear at all. "I'll set to face-down cards and then I end my turn."

"You definitely are different from any other guy I've met." Locket said.

"How so?" Jason asked from the sides.

"Any other guy would tell you in a heartbeat that I was like a ghost or a demon just based on how I act when someone calls me short. But Amun, he treats me just like a normal person without worrying about my interest. He's probably been in my shoes a lot. From what Destiny he studied abroad at the University of Cairo. So other people must have thought that he was real short."

"That's not true. The only thing people ever called me was 'demon.'" Amun said gaining everyone's attention. "After I got out of that tomb I couldn't even go outside without wearing sunglasses for a month. To people I was like a living legend, but like a legend of the living dead. All I became to people was the kid who rose from Anubis' grasp." Amun said with tears beginning to appear from his eyes.

Locket smiled at Amun and threw a small pebble at his head. Amun looked up to see her smiling face as she pointed at him.

"No one here's allowed to get depressed. This is still a duel and we're going to finish it. And on my turn I summon the Blair Witch (1200/900) in attack mode." She said as a generic witch with pale skin took the field riding on a large pumpkin with two other pumpkins floating right next to her. "Next I activate the Field Spell card Pumpkin Patch!" as she placed the card in the hidden slot of the duel disk the fog around them then covered a large pumpkin field lit only by the moon. "This gives all my monsters an extra 1000 attack points so now my Blair Witch will attack your overgrown Nile reject with Flying Pumpkins!" the witch then shifted her wand by a few inches and the two pumpkins floating by her smashed into Ammit destroying him and leaving Amun's life points from 1500-1100. "Next, I'll end this duel with Black Cat and Feline Fury!"

The small cat then began to grow to about the size of a cheetah and jumped up about to slash into Amun when he fell to the ground and spoke out in a large voice.

"I activate the trap card, Lost in the Pyramid! When this card is activated I destroy all spells and traps on the field and bring one of my Egyptian Spirit monsters from my deck to my hand." He said as a large pyramid appeared out of the card and destroyed all the spells and traps and even conquered the pumpkin patch. Amun's card shot out of his deck and into his hand as Amun's eyes narrowed all the more. The cat finished its attack and dropped Amun's life points from 1100-600.

"So why was he so afraid to play that card?" Destiny asked.

"Try and think of it like this. Amun spent any number of times lost inside of any numbers of pyramids and locked inside the dark." Tao explained. "So more than likely he doesn't want that kind of reminder about the dark he saw in there."

"No" Amun said rising to his feet. "That dark holds no fear to me. The only part of being lost that scares me is what happened while I was lost. To see all of those things come towards you and then to find that they were your friends scares me more than anything."

Amun looked at the card he drew and his dilated and then he looked over at Locket.

"Tell me, what dorm would have picked if you had won this duel?" Amun asked.

"Slifer, so that way I can be with you." Locket said cheerfully.

"One more question, can you read these hieroglyphics?" Amun asked.

"No" Locket said. "No, I can't read them at all."

"They say on them, he who wears this garb shall take it upon himself to fulfill the wishes of others. That is the creed of the Scarab King." Amun explained.

"_Then that means!" _Tao thought to himself.

"On my turn I summon Egyptian Spirit Scarab (1700/0) in attack mode!" Amun called out as a large Scarab beetle with a large jewel on his head took the field and roared at Locket. "Next I activate its effect; when summoned I can send one of my other monsters to the graveyard to have this card's name counted as that monster. So by sending Anubis to my graveyard Scarab now counts as Anubis. Next I play Osiris' Second Chance to resurrect my Anubis (2800/2000) from the graveyard." The large jackal-headed monster punched through the ground and growled at the other two monsters. Now I play Scarab Crown! When activated and I control two monsters with the same name and one was originally Scarab the monsters attack points add to each other and only Scarab is allowed to attack. Scarab end this!" the large beetle was then shone in a crown shaped light raising its attack points from 1700-4500. "Finish this duel with Ruby Swarm!"

The ruby on the scarab's head broke into hundreds of other scarabs that swarmed over Locket's cat monster destroying in a frenzy of insects dropping her life points from 4000-0 in one attack. Locket stood there in a daze when the ruby repaired itself and the two monsters disappeared. Amun fell to the ground out of exhaustion and woke up the next morning.

The next morning Amun woke up and opened his door to find Locket standing right outside of it in her new Slifer red blazer with an enthusiastic smile on her face.

"Hi there, Amun! Want me to take care of you?" she said as she began walking into the room to find it already locked and Amun hiding at the base of the door.

"Okay, I won't lie, she's beginning to scare me a little now too." He said looking right in front of him as though talking to someone else who seemed invisible only to find a small transparent beetle looking right up at him.

Chapter five complete.

When a student seemingly from someone else's past Tao sees the potential in him to be the next subject of his interest along with all the others. The only question is will this reveal what the true point to all of Tao's plans are? Next time; Raging Winds Ahead: Tao v. Windragon Shiron.


	6. Raging Winds Ahead I

Here's chapter six of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. This time around when someone from a very painful past shows up and shows that there's more than one way to soar.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel VI: Raging Winds Ahead; Tao v. Windragon Shiron, Part 1<p>

With the arrival of Locket and her joining the Slifer dorm Ninomiya had put back the tables originally in place he took to get Tao to be more social which failed indefinitely. Also, to keep any complications from coming forth Ninomiya placed police tape around the back tables to keep Tao from his, for want of a better term "nest." All four came down from their respective rooms and took their normal seats for breakfast. Tao went to the farthest back chair to keep from what he considered pointless chitchat.

After passing out breakfast Ninomiya noticed the change in mood from most of the students; Destiny seemed to be more curious about everyone, Amun seemed to be more depressed but still upbeat, Tao about the same as before, and the new student Locket seemed to make it a point to be always beside Amun. After finishing breakfast Tao got up to leave which led to Ninomiya putting his arm up to keep him from leaving.

"What now, Old Man?" Tao asked slightly angry.

"How long do you intend to make it seem like you're never going to be found out by the others?" he asked giving Tao a crossed look.

"Nobody can force me to stop pretending to be someone I'm not" Tao said casting Ninomiya's hand off to the side. "I'm my own person, I answer to no one."

Tao left the dorm and left for the main school building with his mouth covered with his hand. Destiny looked over at him and noticed a small sliver of Tao's scar that he quickly covered up. Ninomiya sighed in disappointment when he noticed Locket right behind him. Ninomiya recoiled on a slight yelp alerting Locket to back away.

"What do you know about that weirdo?" Locket asked.

"She's right" Amun said. "You seem to know something about Tao that none of us can fully understand."

Ninomiya looked at the disappearing figure of Tao and sighed heavily. "Whatever Tao is, I can't tell you people. It is his wish to remain a mystery to you. He doesn't wish you to be hurt in the world he lives in."

Tao continued to walk down the halls with people backing off to the side of the halls resulting in Tao putting his head down in depression. As he rounded the corner to the main class he heard the sound of a piano being played by a song that for whatever reason calmed him down. After listening to the soft ballad melody Tao's eyes pooped out of his head as he quickly ran into the music room to find a boy no older himself wearing an opened Ra Yellow jacket with pitch black hair, by the looks of it wire framed glasses. Tao panicked and turned him around to meet his ice blue eyes.

"Kazuya?" he asked in disbelief.

"What up?" he said plainly.

Tao held his head as though he had a migraine and began to pace the room. "What the heck are you doing here?" he asked pointing a finger at who he apparently knew as a boy named Kazuya.

"You make it sound as though I'm not supposed to be here. And is that any way to treat an old friend?"

"Can I really count as you as just that? After what happened to us all those years ago?" Tao asked in an angry tone of voice.

"Same old Tao never knew how to let anything go" Kazuya said. "Anyway, why are we just standing here when we can get answers in the old fashion style of Duel Academy?"

"You mean duel you?" Tao asked in disbelief. "How much of a handicap?"

"Already asking for mercy from me?" Kazuya said confidently.

"I meant for you" Tao said with his eyes staring right into Kazuya's soul.

The students lining the music room began to look at each other in disbelief. Tao held out his hand and Kazuya took it using to pull himself up. The two stared at each other with cold eyes and immediately went into a hand shake.

"It's good to see you again, Tao." Kazuya said.

"It has been a while hasn't it? Last time in Mawman, right?" Tao asked.

Back at the dorms Locket, Amun, and Destiny all had just left when they saw Tao with his duel disk at the ready and he was facing someone that none of them knew. They saw Jason with his arms crossed and looking at the two competitors. The three walked up to him and they had found the teachers unable to stop the two from beginning the duel.

"Who's the guy with Tao?" Destiny asked.

"Kazuya Shirayuki, a recent transfer student from parts unknown. What worries me is that it seems that Tao knows him from somewhere." Jason explained.

"Well, Tao has been all over the world maybe he met him somewhere on his travels." Amun suggested.

"That's one possibility; another could be that Kazuya and Tao know each other from way back and have been close or at odds with each other ever since." Locket suggested as another alternative.

"DUEL!" the two said in unison as both life point gauges read 4000 signaling the start.

"I believe I'll start this duel off" Kazuya declared drawing his card. "And I summon from my hand Full Moon Owl (200/300) in defense mode and then I'll end my turn."

The card was placed horizontally and out of the card came a small owl with a completely white face that stared right at Tao. Tao shivered and placed his hand over mouth and cringing.

"Problem? Or is it that this monster brings back bad memories about Mawman?" Kazuya asked out of half concern.

"My problems are my own, and not yours to bear. They're not for anyone but me to bear." Tao said shivering slightly. "My turn! And I activate the spell card Balance Reactor! Now no Yin or Yang monsters can be destroyed by the effect of any monster card including their own self destruct effect, now I summon Yang Spirit-Seiryuu (1800/1600) in attack mode. I place two cards face-down and now Seiryuu attack the bird-brain, Wood Disruptor!"

The complete blue dragon pushed its body on the ground causing large stakes to come out of the ground and begin to turn Kazuya's owl monster into a regular pincushion. Kazuya raised his head from the disintegrated pieces of the owl and smiled as a card flew from his deck and into his hand.

"Wait did I miss something?" Locket asked.

"You did" Jason said. "Whenever a Full Moon Owl is destroyed from the field the player can instantly bring a card called New Moon Owl to your hand. But if this is Kazuya I've seen then this could spell trouble."

"What do you know about him?" Destiny asked.

"From what I do know, he's obsessed with finding a dragon that lives in reality. And from what I've been hearing he accompanied Tao to a trip to Mawman, England. Land of the Death Raptor." Jason explained.

"What's the Death Raptor?" Amun asked looking over at Tao.

Tao turned to him and rolled up his sleeve opposite to the one of his scar to reveal another similar to it.

"In Mawman, England there's said to be a demon that lives in an old churchyard and flies its skies. Originally found by two sisters who described it as similar to that of a man with wings. In the years that followed the monster made more appearances and was seen more commonly as cross between a human stature and build with the feathers, wings, and facial features of an owl. Known as the Owlman or Death Raptor it is said to be a violent creature that attacks most and even humans as this is apparent by the scar on my other arm. Kazuya, my parents and I took an expedition to said church and we quickly found our answer and were attacked with no one sustaining any major injuries until we found it wasn't too shy to venture out of its territory when it tried to attack us. Kazuya and I tried to stop it grabbing onto its wings for my parents to tag it as found when it scratched me with its talons. Kazuya carried me to safety and my parents…gone. They had run away from the monster and I haven't seen them since."

Kazuya and Tao both showed solemn faces and looked at each other and saw each other as the same kids who tried to protect the two cowards who called Tao their son.

"My move!" Kazuya declared. "I play Sonic Wind Storm, now by discarding three Wind monsters from my hand like these the New Moon Owls I can destroy your monster." After sending the three cards to the discard pile a giant tornado whipped up with small shrapnel that attacked Seiryuu destroying it instantly. "And now that I have 1 of each of the moon owls in the graveyard I can summon my Eclipse Falcon (2700/2000) in attack mode." As he played the card a giant black and white falcon took the field and screeched at Tao "Next, I'll play one card face-down and next I'll attack you directly with twenty seven hundred attack points. Go, Light and Shadow Break!"

As the falcon screeched again and sent the sound waves charging towards Tao. The sound waves came several inches from Tao when he raised his arm in defense.

"I activate my trap card, Yang Shield! By removing from play one of my Yang monster from my graveyard I can negate your attack and end your turn automatically!" Tao said as a large barrier came around him with a dark spot on the top.

"Fine I guess it's your turn" Kazuya said. "Make sure you find a way out of this that's better than your plan against ol' Owlman."

"Fine! My turn and I summon Yin Spirit-Suzaku (1700/1000) in attack mode and activate his effect to Special Summon one Yang monster from my hand to summon Yang Spirit Byakko (1500/1600) in attack mode. Next I activate the spell card, Balance Reactor! By sending this card from my field to the graveyard by this card's effect I can summon one of my Yin monsters from my deck like my Yin Spirit-Genbu (1000/2000) in defense mode." After placing all the monsters on the field the white tiger, red phoenix, and black tortoise took the field. "And I can summon one of my Yang monsters I've used in the duel like Seiryuu (1800/1600)." The blue dragon again took the field. "And now I can summon Huang Long-the Spirit of Wu Xing (2800/2400)!" as the large dragon took the field he snorted in the falcon's face. "Now I attack with Borderline Crusher!"

The dragon then blasted through the ground with a beam of black and white that shot straight out at the falcon.

"I activate my trap card Whirlwind Deflection, now your monster's destroyed and you take half of its attack points as damage." Kazuya declared revealing his hidden trap.

The trap unleashed a cyclone that attacked and destroyed Huang Long and then sending the shrapnel at Tao dropping his life points from 4000-2600. Tao smiled threw the smoke and revealed his other trap card.

"Wu Xing Reversal!" Tao declared as a five pointed star surrounded the field. "With this card I can destroy one of your monsters when I take damage from an effect and inflict half of the destroyed monster's attack points as damage straight to you granted I'm not allowed to attack for the remainder of this turn."

The star began to spin faster and faster when it finally released a giant power flex that shot and destroyed Eclipse Falcon dropping Kazuya's life point gauge from 4000-2650.

Kazuya chuckled and looked up at Tao who seemed to be having fun as well.

"Tao answer me this; what is your intention from coming here? What is so important that you've had to lie from these people, but more importantly what is your goal in coming here? If you don't answer these questions I'll force the answer out of you."

Jason, Destiny, Locket, and Amun all looked with disbelief at Kazuya's bravery and Tao kept a stern look on his face while Kazuya took his draw. Kazuya looked at the card he drew and began to laugh.

"With this, the real duel starts here!"

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><p>Chapter six complete. Cliffhanger FTW!<p>

Thanks for Kazuya; he's a real fun character to mess around with. Next time; as the duel between Tao and Kazuya continues Tao's secrets begin to come to light that will affect not only his own life but the lives of everyone he finds precious. Next time; Raging Winds Ahead, Tao v. Windragon Shiron Part 2; Who is Tao?


	7. Raging Winds Ahead II

Here's chapter 7 of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. Last time Tao met up with an old friend and was challenged to a duel by old companion Kazuya Shirayuki. After a near stalemate of a duel the two now only differ by fifty life points and now both true powers of their decks are about to be revealed.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

Duel VII: Raging Winds Ahead; Tao v. Windragon Shiron, Part 2

"Tao answer me this; what is your intention from coming here? What is so important that you've had to lie from these people, but more importantly what is your goal in coming here? If you don't answer these questions I'll force the answer out of you."

Jason, Destiny, Locket, and Amun all looked with disbelief at Kazuya's bravery and Tao kept a stern look on his face while Kazuya took his draw. Kazuya looked at the card he drew and began to laugh.

"With this, the real duel starts here! I summon Windragon-Shiron (1900/1400) in attack mode!" as Kazuya placed the card into the empty slot the card revealed itself as a western dragon with a pilot's cap. "Next, I play the spell card Halo Tornado! With this while I control my good buddy Shiron I destroy all your monsters!" After playing the card a giant whirlwind with small bits of debris began to strike the four monsters on Tao's side of the field and continually battered them until they were reduced to dust in the wind. "Next I attack with Windragon Shiron; go Tornado Slicer!"

The dragon breathed in and shot out of its mouth a continual stream of wind that blasted almost straight through Tao dropping his life points from 2600 to 700. Panting but still determined Tao looked at Kazuya as he simply chuckled and pointed at Tao.

"You have obviously gotten weaker bud. And I don't tell that to everyone," he said as the Windragon shared in his amusement.

"Healing…" Tao said under his breath.

"Huh?" Destiny said as the rest looked at Tao.

"I need these scars healed to fully move past what happened all those years back," he said with his head down. "And to do that I need power; powers of the past, powers of possession, and power to see that which hasn't happened."

The rest of the students looked at him crippled by the attack when Destiny noticed something strange about his scars. They seemed to be larger than the first time she saw them.

"I've already taken the Jewel of Excalibur and the Scarab of the Pyramid and I won't let you stand in my way from moving on for the first time in my life! My draw and I play Balance Destroyer, whenever I have two Yin monsters, two Yang monsters, and one Wu Xing monster in my graveyard I can remove them from play and destroy all my cards in my hand and on the field to discard all cards in your hand and have us both draw five cards as well as have our life points even out based on the average between the two," Tao explained.

As the five-pointed star appeared again from earlier and spun around the two of them it produced all the effects as Tao described leaving both Tao and Kazuya with 1675 life points.

"And balanced is restored," Tao said drawing his five cards and watching Kazuya doing the same. "Now why don't I change up my game as well, by summoning Chinese Spirit Da Shu (1000/0) in attack mode," he declared as a black and white rat took the field.

Destiny, Locket, Amun, and Jason all looked at the monster and were dumbfounded by its appearance.

"Anyone mind explaining?" Locket asked.

"Astrology," Destiny said. "That rat is part of twelve symbols that represent one's personality like my zodiac cards. These are all symbols in Chinese mythology that each represent a year and continue in that cycle for every year."

The rest of the group looked at her surprised while Tao kept a straight face while looking at Destiny who seemed to be hurting inside.

"With my Chinese Spirits I have several powers; number I can attack you directly by cutting their attack points in half, also they count as both light and dark monsters, and specifically for Da Shu he can trick you into discarding one card from your hand and then I either A, keep you from activating said type of card if it is a spell or trap, or B, cut the attack points of a monster in half should the card discarded is a monster," Tao explained. "Da Shu; Trickster Gaze!"

The rat looked at Kazuya intently and jumped up and bit the middle card revealing it to be a monster card with the picture of a sapphire bird on it. Da Shu's eyes then averted to Shiron whose attack was half to 950.

"Now Da Shu, attack, Flowing Swarm!" the rat then called out as a large amount of water came out that flooded the area and destroyed Shiron dropping Kazuya's life point gauge to 1625.

Kazuya kept his head down and lifted it up to be found smiling even though his dragon had been destroyed.

"You know what, Tao? I couldn't be happier you destroyed Shiron…or at least his base form," Kazuya said much to everyone's shock.

"Hmm," Tao contemplated. "I'll set down two face-down cards and end my turn."

"Fine, my draw and I remove from play my Windragon Shiron to summon from my hand Spiritual Windragon Shiron (2000/1400)!" he declared as he summoned a monster that looked similarly like to the other Windragon Shiron but had armor on its arms and lower legs. "And by this card's effect I can bring back one of the wind monsters in my graveyard, and I choose my Eclipse Falcon (2700/2000) which means I can summon it to the field automatically." He said as the black and white falcon took the field again. "Now my Spiritual Windragon Shiron attacks your rat, Spiritual Tornado Rage!"

"Hold on! When you attack I activate my trap card, Balance Spectrum! As long as this trap remains active in order to attack a monster on my side of the field with the lowest attack you have to attack with your strongest monster!" he said pointing to the falcon. "Which means you falcon has to attack me!"

The students all looked at Tao with surprise because based on simple that would mean he would lose automatically. Kazuya chuckled and accepted the trap and attacked with Eclipse Falcon.

"What now, Tao?" he asked confident in his win. "When this attack connects you've lost! Light and Shadow Break!"

The falcon placed its wings in front of its face and removed them from their place to send out a beam that looked similar to the Yin and Yang symbol that attacked and destroyed Da Shu in an instant. Still in the dust Kazuya grinned only for that smile to dim as he saw Tao standing with a total of 675 life points and with a black and white ox on his field.

"How did you do that?" Kazuya asked surprised.

"It's a rare trap card called Balance Replacer; activated only when my opponents declares an attack this card makes it so I take no battle damage this turn and by sacrificing my Chinese Spirit monster and paying life points equal to its combined attack and defense I can automatically summon another Chinese Spirit like this Chinese Spirit Niu (600/2100) from my deck," Tao explained.

Kazuya looked at Tao impressed and conceded the turn to him.

"My draw! I summon from my hand Chinese Sprit Hu (1600/1000) in attack mode!" Tao said as he summoned another black and white monster, this time a tiger. "Next, from my hand I play the spell card Balance Gathering! With this I can special summon one of Chinese Spirits from my deck, like Chinese Spirit Tu (1200/500)!" he declared as he summoned from his deck a black and white rabbit.

"So what? You got yourself a nice little zoo here, what does it do for you?" Kazuya asked tauntingly.

"This! By halving the attack of two other Chinese Spirit monsters my rabbit can attack you directly this turn!" Tao explained as both the tiger's and ox's attack dropped down to 800 and 300 respectively. "Tu, Nature Strike!"

The rabbit jumped over both of Kazuya's monsters and then kicked Kazuya in the gut leaving him with 425 life points. Cringing slightly after being attacked Kazuya stood up only to find the tiger doing the same thing leaving him with 25 life points. Looking at Tao whose tiger had just jumped back to him confused Kazuya was cut off before he could ask his question.

"Remember that my Chinese Spirits can attack you directly should I halve their attack," Tao explained. "I'll set one more card face-down and end my turn. Now who's at the disadvantage?"

Looking at his life points Kazuya's eyes widened and he smiled an interesting smile in the fact he wasn't hysterical nor did he find humor.

"Tao," he said. "This is the lowest amount of life points I've been at. I've never been forced into this kind of corner before and for some reason it feels good. Every duel I don't lose anything, not even a monster and here you are practically wiping the floor with me. Why does this feel so good?"

"Because you have that potential to not only lose, but like so many others you find it enjoyable to be a corner because it pushes you, makes you look like a person who's not afraid to admit he can lose. It proves that you're human, and that's a recognition everyone deserves," Tao explained.

"All right, my turn! And I'm going to attack your Chinese Spirit Niu with my Eclipse Falcon! Light and Shadow Break!" The falcon used the same attack as before and fired it at the ox hitting it but not destroying it. "What?"

"When Niu is attacked while in defense mode I can add the defense points of all my Chinese Spirits to his. You take no damage but if the defense points I can destroy one monster on the field," he said pointing to Shiron now being blasted by the reflected blast.

Kazuya looked pleased as he looked at a card in his hand and chuckled.

"Just like before I remove from play my Spiritual Windragon Shiron to summon from my hand Berserk Windragon Shiron (2300/1700) in attack mode," Kazuya said summoning another version of Shiron this time with a frenzied look on his eye. "Now by his effect I can special summon from my hand one of my wind monsters like my White Blizzard Owl (1300/0) who, when summoned, destroy a spell or trap card like your Balance Spectrum!" as the snow white owl took the field it swooped down and destroyed the card on Tao's field. "Now it's your turn."

"Just as things begin they must end; so this begins your end," Tao declared. "I activate my face-down card Balance Rewrite!" as with all his cards a five pointed star took the field. With this card neither player can attack during this turn and the next turn. And for the price to drop my life points to the same as yours and all the cards in my hand I destroy all the cards on the field."

Tao's life points dropped down to 25 much like Kazuya's did on his last turn. The star's pointed broke apart and feel down from the sky after shooting up towards it the points then glowed destroying everything and then left one point on each person's field.

"Now it's your turn. And given that this will be your final turn you'd make it count," Toa said.

Kazuya smiled, but off in the distance Destiny seemed to be in a state of panic.

"_What is Tao? He's like a monster, more so than the ones who attacked him in the past. What does he want with that power? Does he really just want to be healed? Then why not have us help him? He's lying about something, and I won't rest until I find out what it is!"_

"My draw and I remove from play my Berserk Windragon Shiron to summon my final card; Command Windragon Shiron (2500/2000)!" Kazuya declared summoning yet another version of Shiron this time with more full body armor. "Tao, if you can't stop me this turn, you've lost!"

The audience looked Tao who kept a stern look on his face. "Kazuya," he said. "I've survived more than I'd like to admit. I've seen things that people want to keep hidden. But most of all I've never lost. And neither have you, so someone's record will be broken, the question is who'll blink first," he said drawing his card. Keeping a solemn face and lowering his head he turned to Kazuya, "I'm sorry, Kazuya, but to move on I'm going to have to defeat you along the way. I remove from play Chinese Spirits Da Shu, Niu, Hu, and Tu to summon Chinese Spirit Long (2500/2000)!" he declared as he summoned a serpentine like dragon that was black on the top and white along the belly. "Unlike most cards of the Chinese Spirits he can't attack directly, but he does have this; for every light monster and dark monster in my graveyard he gains 100 attack points…" Tao lowered his head. "It's over; Long, Boundary Beam!"

The dragon charged up a beam in his mouth as his attack points grew to 2900 for each of the Yin and Yang monsters in Tao's graveyard. Kazuya smiled and said under his breath, "So I am human…" the beam blasted through the dragon and through to Kazuya who fell backwards as his life points dropped down to 0. Tao offered his hand and pulled Kazuya up.

"Sorry I had to ruin everything for you," he said bowing.

"Thank you for the best duel of my life!" Kazuya said as he fell back onto his back.

Tao smiled and walked past everyone and stopped next to Destiny.

"Next time, it's you…" he said walking away.

Destiny turned to him as he was walking away and tears began to produce from her eyes.

"_I don't know if I can do this?"_

Chapter seven complete. Again a shout-out to the person who sent me Kazuya, I'm definitely going to use him in later chapter should I find the time.

Next time; still worried about what Tao said to her Destiny goes into a state of depression and when she's challenged to an official duel by a strange duelist who only knows the bright side of life, who knows what'll happen. Next time; Look on the Bright Side: Zodiacs v. Cosmos.


	8. Look on the Bright Side

It's been a while so I thought I'd bring back my Yu-Gi-Oh GX story. To recap: as the duel between Tao and Kazuya ended Tao declared that his next opponent would be Destiny saying that she is the last power he needs to be healed of his scars. Now deterred from her normal cheerful attitude will Destiny accept or refuse the duel of her life.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel VIII: Look on the Bright Side: Zodiacs v. Cosmos<p>

Waking up alone in her dorm Destiny woke up and sat up in her bed looking outside the window. Sighing out of relief she walked to the door when she heard footsteps coming down the outside walkway. Peering out of the window Destiny cringed as she watched Tao walk by and stop by her window. Hiding under her desk when Tao peeked into the window Destiny broke into tears while he walked away.

"_What am I gonna do?"_ Destiny thought through her tears.

Slowly walking down the steps to the dining area Destiny poked her head around the corner to find Amun and Locket already eating. Sighing out of relief she walked in to find Tao in the back table set several meters from the front table where the other two were already seated. Eating her breakfast almost immediately after sitting down Destiny ran out of the room leaving Amun dumbfounded.

"What's up with her?" Amun asked with Locket chuckling.

"You just can't understand a woman's thinking, Amun," she said patting his head.

"I think that's more of a good thing," Amun said sarcastically. "You think it has something to do with Tao?" he asked looking back at Tao still eating his breakfast.

"It's definitely a possibility," Locket agreed. "But Destiny wants nothing more than a duel with people. Why would she be so scared now?"

Pondering the question for several minutes Amun shook his head as Tao got up from his seat and walked back by the others.

"It's not a question why she's scared now." Tao said. "But more of a question of how much she's endured since coming here compared to what she's endured before coming. She's afraid of something, but it's not dueling…it's me," he said walking away.

Watching him leave Amun snapped his fingers and turned with a smile to Locket, "He's right!" he shouted. "Do you remember what Kazuya said after their duel? He said, "So I am human…" meaning that because he and Tao have lived those lives Tao seems more monster than he does human."

"That makes a little sense but still, is the differences of how those two lived their lives really have that much affect on any form of companionship that they share?" Locket asked.

While on the courtyard to the school building Destiny continued to run past students leaving them confused with tears in her eyes.

"_What's wrong with me? It's so bad I can't even look at him,"_ she thought to herself.

Still running through the halls Destiny entered the class and returned to her seat and kept her head buried in her arms causing a murmur amongst the students. Still crying over Tao Destiny looked up and saw a boy standing in front of her with the same style pants that Tao wore and cringed about to punch him. Catching the fist the boy looked down at Destiny and poked her on the head.

"If you're going to come out, now would be the best time," the boy said in a voice completely different from Tao's.

Destiny looked up as he said and found the boy to be about the same height as Tao but with long silver hair reaching over his cheeks to an extent with a stray bang reaching over his face, light cyan eyes, a long white coat revealing a solid light yellow t-shirt, and white pants matching the black slacks that Tao normally wears. Sighing out of relief Destiny breathed deeply and shook the boy's hand.

"I'm Destiny, and you are?" she asked sitting back down still looking up at the boy's face.

"Gaia, Gaia Cehack," the boy now named Gaia answered. "And I can't help but notice you have a problem."

"Am I that obvious?" Destiny asked.

"As a train wreck," Gaia said simulating a crash with his hands. "And my guess is that it has something to do with that kid Tao."

"Hit the nail on the head…wait! How did you know my problem was with Tao?" Destiny asked dumbfounded.

"Subtle you may be, but not your monsters," Gaia said looking down at her deck. "Your cards' spirits told me all your problems, but they themselves can't conjure up a reason to explain your recent withdrawal from your social community."

"Because Tao is part of it," Destiny answered and looked at his empty seat. "He's been taking things from people like Amun's scarab amulet and Jason's jewel, and I think he's going for my necklace next," she said slightly touching the necklace with the zodiac symbols decorating it.

Gaia looked down at Destiny as she began to tear up and then hit the top of her head with his fist and grabbed her hand and led her to the public dueling field. Throwing a duel disk her way Destiny instinctively caught and looked up at Gaia out of confusing as he placed a deck inside and looked at Destiny to do the same.

"If we're going to duel the time is now!" Gaia declared as the bell rang for classes start.

Destiny turned around to leave when the doors closed around her forcing her into the room. Looking back at Gaia who held a small remote controlling the door Destiny grabbed her deck and placed it in the duel disk and touched her necklace again. Chuckling Gaia looked down at his deck and closed his eyes only for him to open them again after several seconds.

"They want to fight," Gaia said smiling confident.

"What?" Destiny asked.

"The Cosmos cards in my deck," Gaia said. "They feel the urge to fight your Zodiacs more so than any other deck they've ever faced with me."

"Why do you want to duel me?" Destiny asked.

"That's simple," Gaia said with a chuckle. "Problems are like projects; they never mean anything until they are resolved. Let's begin! I start!" he shouted drawing a card from the top of his deck. "I summon DFF-I Warrior of Light (1300/1800), in attack mode!" he shouted placing the card on the empty slot casting a hologram of a large warrior with extensive armor, two elongated horns on the helmet, and a thin, long blade in his right hand. "Next, I'll set two face-down cards and end my turn. Your move!"

Destiny looked at the monster you looked back at its owner and smiled slightly making Destiny widen her eyes. Shaking her head Destiny drew her card and looked at it and then back at the monster in front of her.

"I summon Zodiac Aries (1800/1000) in attack mode!" Destiny called out placing the card in the empty slot projecting the hologram of the dark transparent ram. "Now by its effect I'll destroy the left-most face-down card."

Aries jumped up over the warrior and rammed into the face-down right behind it disintegrating it while Gaia continued to smile. Destiny cringed at his smile and looked back at Aries who returned to her side.

"Now, attack with Celestial Burn!" Destiny shouted.

Aries shot out a stream of fire decorated by star shaped patterns. Gaia snapped his fingers causing the warrior in front of him to make a defensive stance. Absorbing the attack in its entirety the warrior stared with cold eyes at Aries who was taken aback by the circumstance.

"What gives?" Destiny asked.

"When my Warrior of Light is attacked while in attack mode I can change it to defensive mode should I see it fit," Gaia explained.

Growling slightly Destiny placed two cards in her spell/trap card slots and conceded the turn to Gaia.

"My draw! And I play DFF-II Firion (1600/800) in attack mode!" placing the card in a slot the card projected itself as another warrior, but with differently designed armor and with two swords instead of one, as well as a large bow and arrow clipped to its back cape. "Now, I roll a die and then I add the result to his attack points times 100."

Throwing a large die onto the field Gaia watched as it spun on its corner before landing off onto one side with two on it. The two dots on both corners of the die shined a transparent yellow raising the attack of the monster by 200 to 1800.

"Eh, no matter," Gaia said. "Firion, attack Aries with Fervid Blazer!"

The warrior with the arrow on the back of its armor jumped up and shot the arrow on its back and then began slashing at Aries who tried its best to fight it off. The two then both hit each other in a critical area and the two exploded. Aries retreated back into its card and fell into the graveyard area of the duel disk while Firion retreated back to the spell/trap card and then took a resting stance.

"How did that happen?" Destiny asked.

"Whenever one of my Cosmos monsters are destroyed I can either place them on my spell/trap card zone or to the bottom of my deck," Gaia said. "Which leads me to this, Assist-HP!" he said holding up a card with a ray of exploding light on it. "While one of my Cosmos monsters is in the spell or trap zone I can tribute it to inflict damage to my opponent equal to the monsters attack points."

The light from the card converted Firion to complete energy and then shot it towards Destiny striking her on the majority of her body dropping her life points from 4000-2400. Gasping while standing up Destiny looked at Gaia who stayed with the same smile he came on his face since the beginning of the duel.

"Why do you keep smiling? Because you're winning?" Destiny asked with an annoyed demeanor on her face.

"No," Gaia said placing his hands up in defense with a small chuckle. "I smile because there's no reason not to smile."

"What?" Destiny asked. "Oh I get it, you're one of those kids whose life has been nothing privilege and riches?"

"Nowhere close," Gaia said looking up. "I come from a modest family, but so what about where I come from? Think of it this way; I have parents, I have a game that I play and have fun doing it, and most of all I have friends. What more can a person need?"

"But you don't understand the circumstances of my problem," Destiny said trying to defend herself.

"Regardless of the situation it can't stop you from being who you are," Gaia said cutting her off. "But for now let's finish this challenge; I play another card face-down and end my turn."

"Right!" Destiny shouted drawing a card from the top of her deck. "First I summon Star Gazer Pegasus (1500/1500) in attack mode!" she called out summoning the astral formed winged horse. "Now by his effect, I can bring to my hand one of my WIND Zodiac monsters, like Gemini!" she said catching the flying card from her deck. "Next, I play my first face-down, Solar Alignment! Now any Special Summoned monster is treated as thought it were Normal Summoned instead. Next, is my second face-down card, the spell card House Ascension!" she said with a card glowing in her hand. "With this I can summon a Zodiac that is the same attribute as another monster I control. So since my Pegasus is a WIND monster I can summon Gemini (1500/1500) from my hand!"

Gemini took the field with the twins holding each other's shoulders in an astral silhouette decorating its body in star design.

"And because of Solar Alignment Gemini's effect kicks in doubling his attack points," Destiny explained as Gemini's attack raised form 1500-3000. "Now attack with Double Strike!" Destiny called out as the two twins grabbed each other's arms and swung each other at the knight still in the defensive position."

"Heh," Gaia sounded pressing a small button on the duel disk activating his face-down card. "Mirror Force! With this I negate your attack and destroy all your attack position monsters!"

A giant mirrored wall blocked the twins from attacking and then blasted the attack back at it and then burst into fragments destroying Pegasus and Gemini simultaneously. Gaia looked through the wreckage with a smile on his face.

Growling as her two monsters were sent to the graveyard, "I'll set one more card face down and end my turn."

"Draw!" Gaia said drawing his top card. "First, I summon DFF-VII Strife (1900/1200) in attack mode!" Gaia shouted summoning a monster with no armor but long dark trouser, a short sleeved shirt with a shoulder brace while holding a giant sword behind his back. "And by this monster's effect I can destroy your face-down card without so much as a 'how do you do'."

The warrior slowly reached for the sword and then ran forward slashing directly through it and disintegrating it as quickly as it was slashed. Destiny stayed motionless as the warrior returned to Gaia's side.

"Now attack, with Cross Slash!" Gaia called out.

The warrior grabbed his sword once again and slashed at Destiny three times making a large symbol from the slashes. Destiny fell backwards as her life points dropped from 2400-500. Gaia placed one more card face-down and then conceded the turn to Destiny who was left with two cards left in her hand.

"Alright, draw!" she called out. "I summon Zodiac Virgo (200/1900) in defense mode!" she said placing the card in a sideways position as the transparent form of a young woman appeared with a star pattern covering her body. "Next, I activate her effect allowing me to destroy one monster on the field whose battle position is the same as hers."

Virgo eyes shined a spectral white that destroyed the knight still lying in defense mode only for it to retreat back to the spell and trap zone.

"Next, I play the field spell card Planetary Alignment!" she called out as a large field opened up with the many planets circling the field. "And with this I can automatically bring out one of my Zodiac from my deck whose attribute is the same as one of my other Zodiacs on the field. So I'll play Zodiac Capricorn (500/1700) in defense mode!" she called out as the combination of a goat and sea creature appeared in astral form with the uniform star design. "And by this card's effect and Solar Alignment I can bring out one Celestial Fusion card from my deck to my hand," she said as the card shot out into her hand. "Next, I'll play Celestial Fusion to fuse Virgo, Capricorn, and the Taurus in my hand to fuse my Celestial Emissary Humus (2800/3000) in attack mode!"

The three Zodiacs circled and vortex themselves together and reappeared as a giant mass of rocks.

"And when this monster is summoned I can destroy one monster you control and inflict damage to you equal to its attack points as well as negating its effect," Destiny said pointing the golem in the warrior's direction.

Taking the brunt of a blow from the golem's fist the warrior disintegrated with Gaia losing life points from 4000-2100. Destiny began to smile while panting and then gave the final order to attack for the win. Gaia just smiled and shook his head.

"I'm sorry it had to end like this, Destiny," he said.

"What do you mean?" Destiny asked. "This game is mine!"

"Not after this, Assist-HP! By sacrificing my DFF-I Warrior of Light you take six hundred and fifty points of damage…more than enough to defeat you," Gaia explained revealing the face-down card. "This battle is over!"

The shining light from before reappeared converting the Warrior of Light to energy and then shooting the compressed energy through Celestial Emissary Humus and straight to Destiny. Destiny's life points dropped from 500-0. She fell backwards and remained motionless and then stood back up and then smiled at Gaia.

"I didn't know it felt so good to lose," Destiny said.

"Maybe you never knew how it felt because you never experienced it," Gaia said walking towards from the stadium.

Destiny continued to chuckle when suddenly she stopped and widened her eyes. She clutched her necklace and then fell backwards. Seeing her unconscious Gaia ran up to her as she had just fallen into a near comatose state as she struggled to get a word out.

"…Tao…" she said before fallen back out of consciousness.

Gaia sighed out of stress and then looked at the windows seeing Tao walk by them with a cold stare on his eyes. Gaia gritted his teeth and then began to walk towards him when he suddenly felt a tremendous pain in his chest and fell over. Groaning out of pain Gaia looked at his reflection in the window and saw his hair turning black and his eyes changing color into a dark red color. Snickering evilly Gaia stood back up and with his left hand pulled a deck out of it switching the deck already inside the duel disk with the new one in his hand.

"Where the Cosmos has failed, Chaos will triumph!" he shouted holding his fist in the air while cackling loudly.

Looking back at Destiny Gaia grinned and walked away, "Even as Chaos, I will help you. Albeit, in a slightly unorthodox method. See you later, Zodiac."

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><p>Chapter eight complete. I apologize for the late update, I've been getting ready for school so what're you gonna do. BTW thanks for Gaia he's a really fun character to work with, but is there more to him than meets the eye…at this school I wouldn't be surprised. Also, yes, the person who sent me this deck based his cards around the Dissidia game for Final Fantasy.<p>

Next time: Holding true to his promise with Destiny Gaia goes off to challenge Tao who accepts, but is forced to make a wager that threatens his ability to gain the power he needs and his enrollment record at the academy. Next time: Trial of Chaos; Tao v. Chaos.


	9. Trial of Chaos I

Here's chapter nine of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. After fainting out of shock Destiny is now unable to face off against for some power she has. Feeling responsible for this reaction of Destiny's Gaia, a Ra Yellow student who has just defeated the astrology enthusiast has taken it upon himself to take down Tao once for all, but not as himself entirely.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel IX: Trial of Chaos; Tao v. Chaos, Part 1<p>

Walking through the halls Gaia's eyes frenzied as his clothes almost seemed to change from their normal white to a blood red color in front of anyone's eyes complementing his eyes changing from cyan to a deep red and his hair changing from silver to pitch black. Relaxing his shoulders Gaia looked forward to find Tao leaning against the wall of the nurse's office looking in to find Destiny asleep and under stable condition. Tao averted his gaze to Gaia who lunged forward him and punching him in the face. Taking the hit Tao stayed motionless while looking at the fist pressed up against his face and then grabbing it flipping Gaia over his head. Landing on his feet Gaia turned to him throwing a duel disk at his face. Catching it with one hand Tao and Gaia glared at one another when Gaia grinned.

"Well, looks like we have our first contestant," he said with a frenzied look staring Tao in the face.

"What happened? Destiny is **my** opponent!" Tao shouted angrily.

"You caused her problems, and now I'll make them disappear," Gaia answered.

"Gaia Cehack, Ra Yellow, fifteen years of age, is known for his use of a deck based around legendary warriors fighting for a cause known only as Cosmos," Tao said identifying Gaia to perfection.

"That's only half true," Gaia said receiving a confused glare from Tao. "Gaia is only part of me, when I don't believe that Gaia can handle it I adapt to my surroundings as a new individual, Aigis Cehack, so I'd prefer to call myself that for now."

"So who's in control, Gaia or Aigis?" Tao asked.

"Neither," Aigis said. "Unlike most split personalities we find no true differences between the two of us. Unlike most people we understand and coexist with each other."

"Sounds like fun," Tao said placing his deck inside his duel disk. "I take it that by challenging me like this there is an ante?"

"Exactly," Aigis answered. "If you were to win this duel you can duel Destiny when she comes to and attempt to take her power, but if I win you leave the academy and never return with the intention to attack Destiny ever again. Do we have a deal?"

"Fine!" Tao said activating the duel disk. "Let's duel!"

Activating the duel disk in the same way Aigis grinned with his eyes still frenzied. The activating duel disk caught the attention of the students and teachers who formed a circle around them. Ninomiya found Amun and Locket in the nurse's office and placed his hands on their shoulders.

"Go out there and support your friend," he said stroking his beard. "I'll stay and watch Destiny."

"Got it!" Locket said. "Thanks, old man."

Amun looked back as Ninomiya kept a friendly grin on his face who continued to shoo him off. When the door closed Ninomiya closed the curtains and sat down next to Destiny who was still breathing rather harshly.

"There's no other choice, but for _that_ test," he said under his breath slipping a card into Destiny's deck. _"Forgive me, Destiny."_

On the field Aigis and Tao continued to stare each other down when two teachers jumped them from behind and attempted to get them back into class. Pulling at their arms the two muscular teachers were both flipped by Tao and punched by Aigis. Jason sped through and ran at Tao who placed his hand up in defense pushing it up against him. Jason fell backwards and cringed while Locket and Amun helped him up.

"He's not a monster," Amun said. "Only when he duels."

"The other guy," Jason started. "Has a psychological condition which breeds two personalities. Some say this comes from twins being born as one baby, but others say it's a way of dealing with stress that's too much for the specific person to handle. Either way, Gaia's counterpart Aigis is by far the most potential filled duelist in the academy."

"If that's so then why would Tao accept a match?" Locket asked.

"Simple," Amun said. "It's to make sure that no one stands in his way of his ultimate ambition."

"I'll go first!" Tao shouted. "And to start things off, I'll play the spell card Balance Substitution!" he called out as the entire field began pulsing black and white. "Now should any of my Yin or Yang monsters be destroyed by their effect I can inflict damage to you equal to half of their attack points. Next, I summon Yang-Spirit Byakko (1500/1600) in attack mode!" he shouted summon the bulky white tiger who roared right into Aigis' face. "And since I have no Yin monsters Byakko is destroyed and you take half of his attack as damage."

The pulse quickened in a shade of snow white and destroyed Byakko. The pulses then quickened again and sent a blast of black energy at Aigis dropping his life points from 4000-3250.

"I'll play one card face-down and end my turn. Go, Mr. Hyde!" Tao said.

"Funny," Aigis said pulling the card from the top of his deck. "I'll summon DFF-I Garland (1600/1100) in attack mode!" he called out summoning a large knight with a dark armor covering his entire body including his face with a large bladed sword seemingly divided into sections. "Next, I'll equip him with the spell card EX-Mode Activate!" he said as a crest appeared on the large knight's back fitting him with a large white cloak with runic symbols. "With this my monster gains 1000 attack points and can deal battle damage to a player even if their monster is in defense mode. Garland, attack with Soul of Chaos!"

The knight charged itself with energy and then slashed the sword causing a large blast to be shot towards Tao who opened his eyes and placed his hand over his face-down card.

"I activate Yang Shield!" Tao said as a large dome barrier appeared over him with a dark spot on it. "By removing my monster from play I can negate your attack and then end the battle phase," he said as the barrier dissipated.

"Hmm," Aigis sounded. "Well, if that's all I'll play a face-down card and end my turn."

"My draw!" Toa shouted taking the card out of the deck. "And I summon my Yin-Spirit Suzaku (1700/1000) in attack mode!" Tao called out summoning the large red bird. "And then I'll activate my spell card, Yin Yang Gathering! With it I can summon all my Yin and Yang monsters from anywhere, be it from deck, hand, graveyard, or from the removed from play area; they cannot attack and are removed from play at the end of the turn should they still be on the field."

A large symbol for Yin and Yang appeared over Tao and began spinning releasing particles of energy bringing out the black turtle, Yin-Spirit Genbu (1000/2000), the blue dragon, Yang-Spirit Seiryuu (1800/1600), and bringing back the white tiger, Byakko. Tao then pulled one of his other two cards left and fit it into the empty slot.

"I play the spell card, Spectrum of the Zodiac!" he said as a large circle appeared below him with twelve animal symbols at the edges. "With this I can sacrifice all of my Yin and Yang monsters to replace them all with a Chinese Spirit from my deck with a level equal to or lower than the Yin and Yang monsters tribute. So I send Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu, and Seiryuu to summon the Chinese Spirits Da Shu (1000/0), She (1300/200), Houzi (1400/800), and Zhu (1200/900) all in attack mode!"

Da Shu, the black and white rat from an earlier duel, was joined by a black and white spotted snake (She), a black and white monkey (Houzi), and a black and white boar (Zhu) that all looked at Aigis with anger in their eyes.

"Now I activate the ability of Da Shu!" Tao declared. "First you discard a card and if it's a spell or trap you can't activate either until the end of this turn and if it's a monster, your monster's attack is halved."

Da Shu lunged forward at Aigis biting a card and destroying it in his hand. A red aura shined around Aigis' face-down card resulting in Tao chuckling to himself.

"Next comes the snake, She; this monster has the power to look at the top card of your deck and then place it at the bottom if I see it fit," Tao explained as the snake's eyes glowed and peered at the top card of Aigis' deck and with Tao's eyes closed he put it on the bottom. "Now I'll halve all of their attack points to attack you directly!" Tao shouted out as the rat, snake, monkey, and boar all ran past the large knight and attacked Aigis dropping his life points from 3250-2750 by Da Shu, 2750-2100 by She, 2100-1400 by Houzi, and then 1400-800 by Zhu. "And with that my turn is over. Your move."

Struggling to stand up with only a fifth of his life points remaining Aigis looked over at the nurse's office and then back at Tao.

"I will keep my promise," Aigis said. "My turn, draw! I summon DFF-IV Golbez (1700/1300) in attack mode!" he called out summoning to the field a dark knight with a long cape with dark armor lined in gold. "Now I activate his effect causing your own monster to turn on you," he explained pointing at Da Shu.

The rat then turned to face Tao and then walked over to Aigis' side and then screeched at Tao stomping its small feet on the ground.

"Next, I'll activate his own effect on his owner. Discarding the far right card in your hand!" Aigis yelled as the rat jumped and bit onto the card designated. The card in question, Huang Long the Spirit of Wu Xing (2800/2400) was then sent to the graveyard. "And since it was a monster all of your monster's attack points are halved!"

The three monsters on Tao's field shrank to half of their original size. Tao stayed emotionless as the three monsters fell to 650 (She), 700 (Houzi), and 600 (Zhu).

"Now all my monsters will attack yours!" Aigis declared as the three monsters charged the shrunken monsters.

Golbez attacked She destroying it with a painful hiss dropping Tao's life points to 4000-2850, then Garland struck Houzi with a large sound of triumph dropping Tao's life points again down from 2850-950. Tao cringed as the rat, originally his, charged the boar only for it to stop in its track.

"What gives?" Aigis asked.

"That's my question," Jason said from the sidelines.

"It's an ability unique to the boar of the Chinese Spirit cards," Tao said. "Zhu cannot be attacked by a monster that shares the same attribute as it. So no matter how weak you get it to you can't touch it with those dark monsters."

Aigis grunted placing a card face-down card and then conceding the turn to Tao who simply chuckled and drew his card almost pulling the card from something holding back.

"I guess it's time to begin," Tao said looking at the card.

"Begin what?" Aigis asked.

"…The end," Tao said looking straight into Aigis' eyes. "But before I end this, why are you defending her?"

"Who, Destiny?" Aigis asked.

"No, the tooth fairy," Tao said sarcastically. "Of course Destiny. Why defend her when you have no prior relationship to her at all?"

"We both know that that's a lie," Aigis said with Tao's eye twitching. "You and I both knew her before your parents, before my condition, and before she was blessed with her powers. Admit it; we've known her for years."

"Stop it!" Tao shouted placing the card on the duel disk. _"It wasn't just you, Destiny, or Kazuya. I've known all of you; Locket, Amun, Jason, but more than all of you…Ninomiya."_

* * *

><p>Chapter nine complete. Well, that leaves more than one question burning in most people's minds. How does Tao know everyone, what do they all have to do with him, and where does Ninomiya fit into all this?<p>

Next time, as the duel continues Tao is revealed with almost no secrets remaining. Will Tao leave stripped bare of his identity or will he still have one more secret that he has yet to share? Also, what of Ninomiya's comment about setting the trials for Destiny? Next time: Trial of Chaos; Tao v. Chaos, Part 2.


	10. Trial of Chaos II

Here's chapter ten of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. The duel with Tao and Aigis (Gaia's alter-ego) has reached a critical point especially since Aigis begins playing with Tao's mind making him remember how he's met just about everyone so far. But now that Tao's finally snapped what's his mysterious new card and will it be his greatest ally or will it all be for naught and will have to leave the academy.

To make sure everyone is up to speed Tao is left with 950 life points and Chinese Spirit Zhu with his original spell card Balance Substitute.

Aigis is left with 800 life points with Chinese Spirit Da Shu (taken from Tao), DFF-1 Garland (equipped with EX Mode Activate), DFF-IV Golbez, and one face-down card.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel X: Trial of Chaos; Tao v. Chaos, Part 2<p>

"Why defend her when you have no prior relationship to her at all?" Tao asked.

"We both know that that's a lie," Aigis said with Tao's eye twitching. "You and I both knew her before your parents, before my condition, and before she was blessed with her powers. Admit it; we've known her for years."

"Stop it!" Tao shouted placing the card on the duel disk. _"It wasn't just you, Destiny, or Kazuya. I've known all of you; Locket, Amun, Jason, but more than all of you…Ninomiya," _he thought to himself. "I summon Yin Yang Warrior (2700/2000) in attack mode!" Tao called out summoning a shadow clothed in a wide brimmed cone hat, a cloak with the Yin/Yang symbol on its back, a two gauntlets on its arms engulfed in lightning.

"How can you summon a monster like that without a sacrifice?" Amun asked from the sidelines.

"Yin Yang Warrior is a unique monster in that it has the most outrageous summoning condition," Tao explained. "First, I remove from play all Chinese Spirit monsters in my deck, hand, graveyard, and on both fields as well as not being able to summon any other monsters for the remainder of the duel," he said as the boar on his field disappeared along with the rat from Aigis' side of the field and several other cards from his deck, graveyard and none in his hand leaving him with only one card. "Then I also have to pay half of my life points," he said as his life points dropped from 950-475. "And finally, I'm force to play a spell card from my deck, Chaos Trial!"

The entire field went black and then separated into two sides with Tao on the black side and Aigis on the newly developed white side. The students and teachers looked at the new field with chills running up their spines.

"Chaos Trial is a spell card that borderlines forbidden," Tao said catching Aigis' attention. "As long as it's in play and Yin Yang Warrior is as well I take no damage from battles and neither do you. So Yin Yang Warrior, attack, Separator Form!"

The small warrior disappeared from view and then showed up behind Garland making a martial arts chop down his body splitting it in half. Garland almost disintegrated but took a resting pose in the Spell/Trap card zone. Aigis chuckled and then activated his face-down card.

"I activate Assist-HP!" Aigis called out as the light from his earlier duel shone on the field. "With this I can sacrifice Garland and inflict half of his attack points as damage directly to you! Take him down!"

The light shot out as Garland became pure energy. Tao put his out as Yin Yang Warrior did the same blocking the light and dispelling it.

"What!" Locket exclaimed from the sidelines. "How did you do that?"

"Simple, you don't think Yin Yang Warrior would come with no advantages. While out on the field I can take no damage from the effects of spell, traps, or monster effects," Tao explained as the spell card played by Aigis was destroyed in front of him. "I'll play one card face-down and end my turn. So is that all you got, or are you going to take your turn?"

"Like heck!" Aigis shouted angrily. "Draw! _What happened to you? And why did you change your name again?"_

Aigis' eyes fixed onto Tao who simply kept his eyes halfway opened staring back.

"_It all started seven years ago,"_ Tao thought to himself. _"I was just nine years old when I first came to Japan with my parents in search of the Kappa. Back then I thought everything they did was stupid; I always believed that the only monsters in the world were the ones that existed in fairy tales and Duel Monsters. I was the transfer student at the elementary school when I walked in I was still a cheerful kid who just wanted to make friends. I was asked to give my name and I answered the question, but I can never remember what I said._

"_My name is…" and that's all I remember. The first people I met were Gaia and Destiny, they treated me like a friend, but just new me as "Bud," or "Kid," but it didn't matter what they called me. We played together Duel Monsters together and were never apart. We promised each that we would never forget each other and that we would eventually make our own decks just for us. Until, one day during school the teacher made an announcement that I was to leave the school when my parents walked in. They pulled me out of the room and threw a gas grenade in the room and wiped their memories of the last week clean._

"_Outside the school they asked me if that was all the people in the classroom and I lied. I said that that was everyone when I knew that wasn't entirely true. Gaia was in the class, but at the time was developing Aigis who had his own memory and knew all about me. I thought to myself that is there was anyone who would keep our promise it was him, and it looks like I was right."_

"I summon DFF-V Exdeath (0/2800 in defense mode!" he called out summoning another warrior wearing a sky blue suit of armor with a horned helmet, spiked shoulders, a long blue cape, a helmet topped with a two-ended plume with a thin opening, and armor decorated with jewels, gold trim, and beads. "With this card I can search out any of my DFF monsters in my deck like DFF-II The Emperor (800/2000) in attack mode!" he called out summoning a more regal figure wearing gold and purple armor decorated with small spikes, purple and white stripes, demonic faces including one on his back obscured by his hair, gauntlets sporting extended claws, a purple crown with a snake head emerging from it, and a purple cape and long blond hair. "And by switching Exdeath I can destroy your monster instantly, no questions asked."

The Emperor placed his hand over Exdeath changing it to an offensive position. The Emperor then held out his hand and shot a beam of shadowed light towards the small warrior when Tao placed his hand over the field.

"I play Mantis Stance!" he said with a card showing a large praying mantis. "With this I can instantly negate the effects of a monster and then destroy it."

Yin Yang Warrior made a stance similar to the mantis on the card and hit the beam with his right hand sending it back towards the Emperor causing it to disintegrate. Yin Yang Warrior stayed in the position for several seconds and then returned to a ready position. Tao looked up at the audience and looked over at Jason.

"_I remember meeting you too,_" he thought to himself. _"By that time, I was twelve. We left to England and hired your family as guides to the waters of Loch Ness to find the sea serpent said to live there. With your mother and father were Kazuya and his family. Kazuya, you, and I became friends, but I was still border lining anti-social and wanting to be left alone after I was attacked by Mothman. Thankfully, you wouldn't allow that. By then I went by Tao ever since I realized my fascination with Chinese Mythology._

"_The three of us eventually got lost on the Loch and were attacked by the monster, or so we thought. For us, all we wanted was to get out of there. You told us about your powerful gem that could turn you into a knight from medieval Europe. You held it in your hands and spoke in the ancient tongue they spoke in during the time period. The creature left and we all thought that you were the biggest hero ever. But our celebration was short lived when our parents scolded when Kazuya stayed with us to Mawman, but like Destiny and Gaia you're memories of me were erased._

"_Leaving another friend of mine behind without every getting the chance to say goodbye was beginning to take its toll on me. After the attack by the Death Raptor I completely shut down emotionally and was wishing that you were there to snap me out of it."_

Tao then averted his eyes to Amun and narrowed his eyes.

"_You were the only person who understood how my parents acted,"_ he thought. _"It was two years before I met Jason and Kazuya and my parents were touring Egypt in search of the Salawa or Set Dog. You, being the archeologists son, knew all about the Nile River and agreed to take us along. Unlike before, I didn't like you because you sympathized with only my parents. When we reached the Nile River I fell into the banks of it. For the first time you noticed me and dove in to help me and told me what to do._

"_To be honest, I never thought that you would be capable of punching a Nile crocodile in the nose without worrying about the consequences. Your father found us and then took us back, but my parents insisted on staying and seeing it through to the end. Your father tried to take me by force only for my parents to take me back. You, Amun, looked at the scene and followed your father who had given up and left me with my parents._

"_As I watched you leave into the distance I thought two things; one, that maybe someone would listen to me, but two, maybe for the first time I could fight back to back with someone and consider him not only a friend, but a comrade."_

Tao sighed looking back at his monster and then towards Locket who seemed more interested in Destiny than the duel trying to see what was going on behind the curtains.

"_And you, Locket, well let's just say I've always had mixed feelings about you. After I was attacked by the Mothman I was hurried over to a medical facility against my parents' wishes. The injuries were so severe that I was transferred all the way to Boston Medical Hospital where you and I shared a room. To be honest I felt that your necklace was always staring me in the face waiting to strike, but it was nice to talk to somebody for once in awhile._

"_You asked me why I was here and I told you, and you had to think that it was the coolest thing in the world that I believed monsters existed. We talked for hours in that hospital and then we both fell asleep due to fatigue. We played Duel Monsters when the nurses weren't around because they thought it promoted violence. By then I still had my original deck of nothing but scrap when you asked me if I wanted to make my own special cards. When I said yes you told me about the drawing contest to make your own deck, you showed me your card concepts and I honestly didn't like them, but apparently they were good enough._

"_The day I was discharged was the day you were leaving as well. My parents picked me up at the lobby and whisked me off to the next adventure without the chance to say goodbye, but I see that they passed a drug that erased your memories of me."_

Tao looked then at the closed curtains where he knew who was in there.

"_Ninomiya…"_ he thought to himself.

Back on the battlefield Aigis smirked and looked at Tao.

"So is that what happened?" he asked.

"What!" Tao asked.

"Well, let's just say that I can tell what you're thinking," Aigis said. "I know that you know everyone here. Jason, Destiny, Amun, Locket, Gaia and myself, but what of Ninomiya? Where does he fit into your life?"

"None of your business," Tao said.

"Ah, but soon it will be," Aigis said pulling the top card of his deck. "I summon DFF-VII Sephiroth (1900/700) in attack mode!" Aigis called out as another warrior appeared, but with no armor, a long black with white and lavender sashes underneath, a long straight sword, a belt decorated with beads, and a similar bracelet also with beads. "Now I can either destroy a target monster or downsize it to zero attack points. Sephiroth, destroy him Super Nova!"

The warrior ran up and swung his sword at Yin Yang Warrior only for him to block it in mid-air. Yin Yang Warrior then kicked Sephiroth back to his side of the field leaving Aigis stunned.

"By removing a light or dark monster like Yin Spirit-Suzaku I can make Yin Yang Warrior immune to any effect for the remainder of the turn," Tao explained. "Anything else you'd like to do?"

"No, that'll be all," Aigis said grunting placing a card face-down.

"Then it's my draw!" Tao said looking at the card drawn. "Now I activate the second effect of Chaos Trial. By discarding all of one kind of card I can make you discard the all of the same kind from yours. Since I only have one kind of card in my hand you and I have to discard all spell cards in our hands."

Angrily Aigis discard his spell cards to the graveyard being two Ex Mode Activates. Tao smirked and looked back at the nurse's office and held his head as though in a migraine. Looking down his arm Tao began violently coughing falling to his knees.

"Yin Yang Warrior, attack Separator Form!" Tao said struggling to get up. "And I'll activate the effect of Zodiac Spectrum in the graveyard! When more than three zodiacs are removed from play I can remove from play all spells and traps in my graveyard to grant one of my monsters the power to inflict 500 points of damage ever time it destroys a monster by battle."

A large pentagram star appeared on Yin Yang Warrior's head as it disappeared and reappeared behind Exdeath slicing it in two sending it to spell/trap card zone by its own effect and then dropping Aigis' life points from 800-300 by Zodiac Spectrum. Panting out of exhaustion the two duelists both continued to glare at each other.

"End turn," Tao said.

"Finally," Aigis said. "I draw! Now I summon from my hand DFF-XI Gabranth (1200/1700) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning a large knight with gray and silver armor, holding a large curved sword, a large helmet with curved horns, and a black cape with an insignia on the back. "And with this monster I can bring to my hand from even my graveyard EX Mode Activate. Now I'll equip it to Sephiroth!" he said as the dark clothed warrior grew a black wing out of the right shoulder gaining attack points from 1900-2900. "Sephiroth, attack! Heartless Angel Glide!"

The one-winged warrior flew towards the Yin Yang Warrior and stabbed through the area where the heart would be destroying it. Upon destroying it Tao's life points dropped from 475-275.

"Hey, how come Tao's not losing any life points?" Locket asked.

"Chaos Trial's effect is only active while Yin Yang Warrior is on the field," a voice from behind said.

"Kazuya?" Amun asked. "How long have you been here?"

Kazuya came out from the crowd and joined Jason, Amun, and Locket, "Long enough to know that Tao is finally going to lose. You see Chaos Trial is a card that only Tao has the guts to play. And while using it, it's the only time that anyone has even a remote chance of beating Tao because while playing that card he's not careful, he makes mistakes."

"You mean Tao has lost to people?" Amun asked.

"But you said he's never lost," Jason said.

"You're right," Kazuya said. "Tao has never lost to a single person in his life. The only time he's ever gotten down to zero life points is when he chooses to do so."

"He can't be that stuck-up," Locket said.

"No, just watch and you'll see," Kazuya said pointing towards the field.

The Chaos Trial card began engulfing itself in electricity and began glowing black and white. Tao smiled and looked up at Aigis who was waiting for what he thought would be like an explosion.

"Congratulations, Aigis. You are the third person to be my opponent and see my life points deplete to zero," Tao said.

"What?" Aigis asked.

"It's simple," Tao said. "When Yin Yang Warrior is destroyed Chaos Trial goes with it and now comes the fun part. We get to find out my verdict in this duel. Should the card at the top of my deck be a monster card I'm safe and you take its attack points as damage, but if not then I take damage equal to the attack of the monster that destroyed Yin Yang Warrior. There're only four monsters, extra copies of each of the Yin and Yang spirit monsters, left. Should I not win, it means that I have lost this duel but not to you. That's what it means to say I don't lose to people, ever."

Drawing the top card of his deck Tao revealed it to be a trap card. The Chaos Trial exploded and reduced Tao's life points from 275-0. Tao smiled while looking up and then walked away from the scene.

"Hold on, Tao!" Aigis shouted while Tao turned around. "Does this mean you won't come after Destiny?"

"No," Tao said. "_You_ did not defeat. My own card did and therefore it was my loss at my own hands and therefore the second part of the deal is null and void. But I will leave the academy."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Jason said as he jumped at him with Amun, Kazuya, and Locket following after him.

Tao simply smile and threw a small canister in the air after pulling a cord and then ran away as the entire room lit up in a flash of light. Falling to the ground Jason felt a few tears falling to the ground as he tried to look to see Tao at the end of the hall.

On the docks Tao began rowing at the boat with all his might after leaving his Slifer Red jacket at the dock neatly folded. Looking down his arms Tao saw the two scars as though they had gotten larger since before the duel began. Sighing Tao went back to the duel and what he thought about meeting everyone and then back to Ninomiya.

"_Ninomiya,"_ he thought. _"I met you an hour after I was attacked by the Death Raptor. Kazuya had disappeared searching for my parents and the way I understand met up with his parents who forbade him from going back into the forest leaving me for dead. You introduced yourself as my godfather. You took me to China where you trained me in martial arts. I confided with you in everything I did. And I everything I had gone through. The saddest part about being with you was the night you gave me my Tao deck._

"_It was my fourteenth birthday and you had made the cards for me and given them to me specifically. You then spoke to me in private about my scars saying that they weren't battle wounds but an infection that has already coursed through my body after only two years. He told me that in another three years, by the time I'm seventeen, I will die of this infection if the proper antidote is not made. It requires magic and that's what I need from the people I meet._

"_My final question to him was whether there was an alternate treatment, and he said only this, the cure of being a monster is to be able to make peace with our own monster. I've pondered that question for two and a half years now gaining the magic that other people possess. But it won't be enough until I have the catalyst that Destiny's necklace holds. I have six months until I die, but they've always said whatever doesn't kill you only makes you that much stronger."_

Tao disappeared into the fog of the morning while rowing his small boat through the darkened waters. Back on the dock Ninomiya smiled and waved out to the sea as though expecting Tao to wave back.

* * *

><p>Chapter ten complete. Well, with more questions answered more question come up don't they? Tao will die in six months if he doesn't get the necklace from Destiny, but why does he have to sneak about doing it? What of Ninomiya's plan for Destiny? And what of the other students who have grown to see Tao as their friend? And who will be Destiny's next opponent in her preparation for battle?<p>

Next time: Not realizing Tao has left the island Destiny, accompanied by Jason, search for him only to be challenged to a double duel by two of Duel Academy's finest. Next time: Double Trouble; Zodiac and Knights of the Round Table v. Spell Counter and Kuriboh.


	11. Double Trouble I

Here's chapter eleven of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. Don't expect me to update so much anymore, school has just started and I'd rather focus on my school work; what do you expect I'm a high school senior. This time around a double duel between two new OCs whose decks are slightly misleading? Enjoy! And a shout-out to Wind Spirit Kazuya, Happy Birthday!

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel XI: Double Trouble; Zodiacs and Knights of the Round Table v. Spell Counters and Kuriboh, Part 1<p>

Tossing and turning in her sleep Destiny moaned and called out saying "no" within every few seconds going into her dream.

"_Who's there?" Destiny asked hearing a loud noise._

"…_Your worst nightmare…" a voice called out in a creepy tone._

_Turning around in a jerk she came face-to-face with Tao whose eyes were beginning to frenzy. Snickering in her face Tao than cringed and bending over as two wings came out of his back, one insect wing and one feathered wing. Destiny screamed as Tao flew towards her with claws on his hands and making a slashing motion._

"Aah!" Destiny exclaimed waking up in a sweat.

Panting out of lack of breath Destiny ran into Tao's room to find it empty. Destiny looked in the dining room and then in the lounge room still finding no sign of him as she walked back into her own room out of depression. Destiny fell next to her bed and then broke down to her feet crying looking up at her door. The door handle turned causing her to look up hopeful. The door flung open as Jason appeared on the other side as though out of breath. Destiny lowered her head again when Jason walked inside and offered her a handkerchief.

"I can't believe it either," Jason said looking at Destiny's trembling hands.

"Why would he leave?" Destiny asked.

"_That's right,"_ Jason thought. _"She was incapacitated when Tao ran away with that flash bomb._ I honestly couldn't tell you for sure," Jason said breaking his train of thought. "But I don't think he's left the island yet."

"What?" Destiny asked hopeful.

"That's right," Jason said folding his arms. "I believe Tao's on this island hiding out and waiting to hop on some uncharted freighter and make his escape."

Destiny's face went into a sarcastic smile, "Jason, you do realize he's just dropping out of a school, right? Not running from the government."

"Nevertheless," Jason said walking over to Tao's room with Destiny following. "I have a map of all the places he could be where he would be close enough to a freighter boat and make it on there with time to spare," he explained unfurling the map on Tao's desk.

Looking down at the map of the island Destiny's eyes widened and ran back into Tao's room. Looking at a map of Academy Island at the farthest wall Destiny tilted her head and found a spot marked with an "X" on the map that matched one of the locations on Jason's map.

"He's probably here," Destiny said hailing Jason over who looked at the same picture.

Jason turned the map in the same direction as the one on Tao's wall to find it the same map but in an upside down position. Jason and Destiny exclaimed excitedly and ran out of the room not noticing a small note falling off the map. The note fluttered in the air and fell onto Tao's bed and read in Chinese characters, "命运〜留离开这里." Which loosely translates to, "Destiny~ Stay Away From This Place."

Running through the forested areas of the academy Destiny and Jason followed the map for about an hour until both of them began to tire and then collapse back to back.

"This seemed a whole lot easier in theory," Jason said gasping for breath.

"This may just be me, but I think you've been holding the map the wrong way," Destiny said looking up from the large piece of old paper. "See, this map shows the island is the same on two different sides," she said as Jason noticed how the island's south and east sides were almost identical. "So in other words, we need to be going to the east side of the island."

Jason stared at Destiny for several seconds and then fainted from exhaustion, "I'm going to kill myself."

Destiny let out a sarcastic laugh and stood up kicking Jason to get him up. Jason drudgingly stood up and walked with Destiny to the east quarter of the island. Arriving at the east part of the island with Destiny leading she suddenly stopped in a large clearing shaped like a large circle.

"Great, we come to find a duelist who uses Chinese Mythology and what do we find? Crop circles," she said with her eyes half opened.

Walking to the middle of the circle Destiny's eyes widened as she recoiled back as something flew past her. Jason, finally catching up with her, walked into the circle when Destiny ducked and Jason was struck on the forehead by a small nut falling backwards.

"_Ouch," _Destiny thought to herself.

Jason stood back up and was struck again by another nut that Destiny dodged at the last second. This time falling Jason instead charged through the barrage of walnuts and rammed a tree out of rage with frenzied eyes as two people with duel disks one their left arms fell out. One, a girl about Destiny's age in a Obelisk Blue uniform, silver hair reaching down her back, green eyes, and a cold face that had a light appearance; the other a much younger girl, younger than Amun, in a Ra Yellow uniform with brown hair tied in pigtails decorated with small creatures, blue eyes, and an almost serious look on her face.

Jason still panting began to calm down and relax his eyes and looked down at the two and offered his hand t the two girls. The younger girl slapped his hand away and jumped back to the edge of the clearing while the older girl shivered at the sight of his hand and shuffled back to the other girl's side.

"Who are you two?" Destiny asked.

"Call me Fate," the younger girl said boastfully with her fist rested against her hips.

"R-rose," the other girl said with her arms folded as though in cold shock.

"Why were you two attacking us?" Jason asked as Fate threw another walnut at him striking him on the head.

"We weren't attacking you," Fate said pointing at Jason and then pointing at Destiny. "We were attacking the girl."

"Why me?" Destiny asked pointing at herself.

"You know very well why," Rose said almost spitefully throwing another walnut at Destiny with no power behind the throw.

Barely hitting Destiny on the head the nut fell down to her feet. Destiny stood up and out of a pack behind her she pulled out a duel disk with Jason doing the same.

"At this academy, all things are decided by dueling," Destiny said readying the duel disk putting it in Duel Mode.

"Fine!" Fate said doing the same with a duel disk on her arm. "Let's make this a tag-team duel just for the fun of it. Ready, Rose?"

"Ready!" Rose said putting her duel disk at the ready.

The life point gauge on the four duel disks all read 8000 instead of 4000. Destiny looked at the field around them and saw it was the perfect size and dimension for a dueling field.

"_They had this planned from the start, didn't they?" _she thought with a sarcastic smile.

"I have the first move!" Jason said pulling the card from his deck. "I summon Gawain, Knight of the Round Table (1800/1000) in attack mode!" he called out as a young knight with a tall helmet, medieval armor, and a sword and shield with the shield having a design similar to a griffin on it. "And so as he remains on the field, all my Knights of the Round Table gain 500 attack points!" he explained as his monster's attack points rose from 1800-2300. "I'll set one card face-down and end my turn! The turn goes to you, Rose."

"Right," Rose said drawing her card. "And on my turn I summon the Maiden of Macabre (1700/0) in attack mode!" she called out summoning a heavily clothed woman with a painted face and a large scythe in hand. "Next I play the spell card Spell Power Grasp! This card allows me to place a Spell Counter on any compatible monster and then search my deck for another Spell Power Grasp. Additionally, since my Maiden has a Spell Counter on her, she now gains an additional 200 hundred points," she explained as the maiden's attack rose from 1700-1900. "And that will end my turn."

Rose then turned her gaze to Destiny who couldn't help but feel slightly nervous as Rose's gaze turned into an angered glare.

"Draw!" Destiny said. "I summon Zodiac Scorpio (1700/1000) in attack mode!" she called out summoning a large blackish blue, transparent scorpion with a starred pattern on the main body. "And with this monster I can instantly freeze two of your Spell/Trap card zones making it so you can't use them as long as he is on the field," she explained as a light on both Rose's and Fate's duel disk faded and then went black. "Next, I'll set one card face-down and end my turn."

"My move!" Fate said pulling her card from the deck. "I summon Kuriboh Aka* (400/100) in attack mode!" she called out as a small creature covered entirely with red fur with two small arms and feet with claws jumped out of the card and floated in mid-air.

Destiny and Jason both dropped their jaws and began bursting out in laughter as Fate began growling and then screamed out about to run at them when Rose held her hand out in front of her.

"Wait until they see what you can do with those Kuribohs of yours," she said with her glare still on Destiny.

"Fine, I activate Aka's effect; with it I can summon another Kuriboh from my hand, and I have one right here, Kuriboh Daidaiiro** (100/900) in defense mode!" she called out as another creature similar to the first one but with orange fur took the field. "And when he's summoned I can switch a monster's battle position and this effect lasts until the end of my next turn," she explained as the small creature flew towards Gawain and scratched his face forcing him into a defensive position. "Next I'll set two cards face-down and end my turn."

Jason looked at his current monster and then at the small creature that so easily subdued it sitting peacefully on an enlarged version of its card. Jason smacked both sides of his face and then reopened his eyes.

"Draw!" he shouted. "I activate my face-down card, Mystical Space Typhoon!" he called out as a card with a picture of a swirling storm revealed itself and began blowing a large forceful wind. "With this spell card I can destroy one spell or trap already out on the field, like one of those two cards," Jason said pointing at the left most face-down card on Fate's field.

"But before you do," Rose said. "I activate the trap card Tower of Babel!" she called out as a large spiral tower took the field and glowed on one of its sides. "Anytime one of us activates a spell card this card gains a Spell Counter, although the maximum amount is four."

The storm continued to pass towards and then destroy one of Fate's face-down cards.

"Next," Jason said. "I summon Lancelot, Knight of the Round Table (2000/1000) in attack mode!" he called out summoning a more burly knight with a large jousting lance instead of a sword. "And by Gawain's effect Lancelot gains 500 more attack points," Jason reminded as Lancelot's attack rose from 2000-2500. "Also, by Lancelot's effect I am now allowed to summon another one of my knights from my hand," he explained pulling out a card from his hand. "I special summon Elyan, Knight of the Round Table (1600/1000) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning another knight, this one all in white armor. "And don't forget the effect of Gawain!" Jason reminded again as Elyan's attack rose from 1600-2100.

Destiny smiled at Jason as he continued his turn by pulling another card from his hand leaving him with two cards.

"I activate the spell card Holy Grail!" he said as a large goblet appeared in the air. "By equipping this to Elyan I gain 1000 attack points for every monster you girls control bumping him up by 3000 points, and he gains an additional 500 for being equipped with another card."

All three girls watched as the white knight gained more and more attack points taking it from 2100-5600 attack points as another light on the large tower lit up in response to the spell card. Destiny clapped out of respect when Jason smirked and cast his hand over the battlefield.

"Lancelot, attack that orange feather duster, Round Table Stab!" Jason called out as the knight holding the jousting lance charged the orange colored creature.

"Heh," Fate said. "Did you think you could win so easily? I activate the trap card, Overworked!"

"What the heck?" Destiny exclaimed.

"With this card, I destroy all monsters on the field whose attack points are higher than their original attack points," Fate explained. "So even though you were able to get your monster over 4000 attack points you still have to say goodbye!"

The card showing an explosion in a person face began charging power and then shot out a large powered beam that destroyed all three of Jason's knights and, in addition, Rose's Maiden of Macabre. Jason was left standing in a daze as he saw his entire field empty.

"Hurts don't it?" Fate asked. "Being the target of cruelty because of something you can't control. Knowing that all the while that this could very well kill you."

Jason began chuckling and then lifted his head in full force laughter.

"What're ya talking about?" he asked still in a laughing fit. "Whatever doesn't kill you can only make you stronger, right? So what if I lose a few monsters, it just means I have another opportunity to make things better, right?"

Fate recoiled back at his seeming joy at the current situation. Rose looked at Jason only for a few seconds and then turned back to meet Destiny's eyes as she drew her card.

"Draw!" Rose shouted. "On my turn I summon Alchemist of Black Spells (1200/1800) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a figure completely clad in dark colored robes and holding a large book and a large triangular symbol on his right hand. "And by switching him to defense mode I can place another Spell Counter one any one of my cards, like my Tower of Babel!"

A third place on the tower lit up. Destiny looked up at it and closed her eyes only for her to look up at it again and then smile.

"So that's how it is," she said under her breath. "So, I was right."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked.

"I'm going to activate that thing against us," Destiny answered cheerfully.

"What!" Jason asked.

"It's my turn!" Destiny declared drawing her card. "I activate the spell card Stargazer's View!" she said as a large starlit path reached up to the top of the Tower of Babel as the final light on the tower.

"I activate the effect of the Tower of Babel!" Rose declared. "When I have four Spell Counters on it I can destroy it and deal 3000 points of damage to you!"

The tower destroyed itself and the rubble from it fell onto Destiny and Jason dropping their life points from 8000-5000. Jason cringed while looking at Destiny who stood up and took a confident stance.

"I activate my face-down card, Gazer Call! This card instantly calls forth one of my Stargazer monsters from my deck, like Stargazer Cygnus (1500/1500) in attack mode!" Destiny declared as a swan similar in design as all of her other monsters took the field. "And now that I have a Stargazer monster out, I can negate its effect and activate Stargazer's View! This means I can inflict damage to my opponent equal to the amount of damage I took this turn. An eye for an eye!"

The pathway then shot out several stars striking both girls dropping their life points from 8000-5000 just like Destiny and Jason had earlier gone through. Rose and Fate stood up and faced Destiny as though they were facing their worst enemy.

"By the effect of Stargazer's View I'm not allowed to attack this turn, so it's your move, but first answer me this; why are you targeting me?" Destiny asked pointing at Rose.

"Because of what you did to me in middle school," Rose shouted. "Because of the wedge you drove in between me and Ronald three years ago."

Destiny's jaw dropped with Jason looking at her with an estranged look on his face.

"Something you wanna tell us, Destiny?" Jason asked.

"I'll tell you everything!" Rose said looking straight into Destiny's eyes as though she were trying to set her on fire.

* * *

><p>Chapter eleven complete, Cliffhanger FTW! Well, this certainly seems pathetic at a glance now doesn't it? We got two people here one with a deck of dust busters, and one who can't let go of a grudge. Well, let's hope the explanation for this madness is all in the next chapter. Until next time, ja nee! By the way, thanks for the characters of Rose and Fate, this is gonna be fun.<p>

Next time: As the double duel between Destiny, Jason, Fate, and Rose continues the seriousness of things rises when Destiny finds herself using a card she's never seen before. I've got two words for y'all…PLOT TWIST! Next time: Double Trouble; Zodiacs and Knights of the Round Table v. Spell Counters and Kuribohs.

*Aka: Japanese word for red

**Daidaiiro: Old Japanese word for orange


	12. Double Trouble II

Here's chapter twelve of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. So we're in the middle of a double duel for those of you just joining us. To recap: under the pretense that Tao has not left the island Destiny and Jason go to a place marked on a map on Tao's wall only for it to be a warning to Destiny that they should not go there, unbeknownst to them. After arriving they are attacked and instigate a duel between two girls, Rose and Fate, who are targeting Destiny for reasons unknown until Rose reminds Destiny of a name from her middle school life.

To make sure everyone is one the right page Destiny has four cards in hand and Jason has two cards on the field the team has currently 5000 life points with the monster cards Zodiac Scorpio (1700/1000), Stargazer Cygnus (1500/1500), and the spell card Stargazers View.

Rose has four cards in her hand and Fate has two cards and as a team they have 5000 life points with the monster cards Alchemist of Black Spells (1200/1800), Kuriboh Aka (400/100), and Kuriboh Daidaiiro (100/900).

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel XII: Double Trouble; Zodiacs and Knights of the Round Table v. Spell Counters and Kuriboh, Part 2<p>

A bell chimed as a multitude of middle school students ran into the main building not noticing a group of kids on the back wall. The three boys began punching a kicking a young girl with silver hair and green eyes. The girl began to cry out for help with the three boys laughing at her.

"Get real, freak. Who'd help you?" the apparent leader of the boys asked mockingly.

The girl continued to cry out for help but then stopped and then cried out of pain as she felt her ankle snap. The boys chuckled and charged and threw several punches as the girl cringed and opened her eyes to see a young boy with black hair tied up in a pony-tail with a patch covering his left eye being continually punched by the three boys in complete silence. The leader threw a punch at the boy's face only for him to stop it with his bare hand. The leader recoiled back holding onto his wrist.

"Who do you think you are!" the leader asked angrily. "Boys, get him!"

The other two boys picked up long thin sticks and charged the silent boy who grabbed one of them and twisted it out of one of the boy's hand. He then entered into what seemed like a swordfight with the other boy and hit him in the gut knocking him out. The girl looked in amazement as the boy turned to the leader who picked up a stick and charged holding it high above his head. The boy made a stabbing motion and quickly turned to the left and slashed at his left. Falling to the ground the boy staggered getting up when he saw the stick in front of his face.

"Leave her alone," the boy said in a dark and angered voice.

The three boys ran away from the wall and back into the building falling over each other as the boy dropped the stick and turned to the girl who was still on the ground. He held out his hand as the girl cringed backwards shivering.

"I won't hurt you," the boy said.

"Are you true to your word?" the girl asked still cringing in fear.

"My name is Ronald Aoi, and you have my word," he said bowing to her like knight.

The girl took his hand and cringed closing her eyes and then slowly opening them to find the boy looking at her smiling.

"May I ask your name?" Ronald asked.

"Rose, Rose Satellizer," the girl said smiling and following Ronald back into the building holding onto his hand all the while and giggling like any girl.

* * *

><p>The same girl's face appeared again on the battlefield of the duel between Destiny, Jason, Fate, and Rose (hint-hint), but this time was scowling while facing Destiny and pointing at her accusingly.<p>

"Do you remember me now?" Rose asked.

"…Ah!" Destiny exclaimed after hesitating. "Yeah, Ronald used to talk about you a lot."

Growling at the comment Rose looked back at Destiny who tried to remember more but found she was unable to.

"Question!" Jason said raising his hand. "Who's Ronald?"

"He's an old friend of mine," Destiny explained. "And when we were in middle school he saved Rose from bullies."

Rose shivered at the thought of the three boys attacking.

"From what I understand, she comes off as either shy or anti-social and because of that people thought she was the meanest person alive so they targeted her in bullying," Destiny explained more thoroughly. "So much so that she developed a fear of being touched by other people. Although, she never had a problem when Ronald held her hand or patted her on the head."

"My guess, Ronald is her safe place," Jason deduced causing Rose to blush beet red. Jason peered over to look at her, "Yep, that's it," he concluded.

"For some reason when I first met her she was much friendlier to me," she said recalling when she first met her. "But in ninth grade she distanced herself from me and got really mad when I dueled against Ronald."

Fate smacked her forehead and shook her head negatively looking up at Jason who was thinking, Rose who was shivering, and Destiny who was still clueless.

"Ah!" she screamed. "Can we get on with it!" she asked angrily getting everyone's attention.

Jason turned to face her and snapped his fingers, "So what's your angle on this? Why help her?" she said pointing his finger at Rose.

"I'm part of the Discipline Committee along with Rose and we patrol this area during the time frame," Fate explained. "She told me about what Destiny did to her and I just knew that I had to help her."

"I'm not sure Destiny knows what she did," Jason said pointing at Destiny who was still clueless to anything she had done.

"She took up to much of Ronald's time to keep him away from Rose because she was jealous of the bond they shared!" Fate declared as Rose blushed, Jason retched sticking his finger near his mouth, and Destiny snapping her fingers and then making a face as though still trying to figure it out. "Anyway, my draw!" she declared. "I summon Kuriboh Ai* (300/100) in defense mode!" she called out as a third small creature with indigo colored fur jumped out of the card and landed on an enlarged version of the card. "And by this monster's effect I can summon from my hand Kuriboh Ao** (100/300) in defense mode!" she declared as a fourth creature with blue fur copied its former. "Next, I'll play a face-down card and switch Kuriboh Aka into defense mode end my turn!"

"Draw!" Jason declared. "Perfect; I summon Percival, Knight of the Round Table (1900/1000) in attack mode!" he called out as a knight in armor covered by a colorful tunic took the field with his sword unsheathed. "Next, I'll attack the blue fluff-ball, Tactical Slash!" he ordered as the knight slashed through the blue furred creature.

The blue creature exploded and then from the small pieces fragmented a green creature matching its design took its place.

"Whenever the blue Kuriboh is destroyed I can summon another Kuriboh, like Kuriboh Midori*** (100/850), in its place and place it in defense mode automatically," Fate explained.

"I concede the turn to you Rose," Jason said. "Good luck," he said giving her a thumbs-up.

"Fine, draw!" Rose shouted. "I summon Silent Magician Lv. 4 (1000/1000) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a young white female magician with hair and eyes similar to Rose's with a large hat hiding most of her face from view. "Next I use Stop Defense to switch my monster into attack mode," she explained as the Alchemist sitting in defense returned to attack mode. "Now I activate his effect again to place a Spell Counter on Silent Magician!" she declared as the Alchemist switched back into defense and the scepter held by the young magician lit up in a small section one fifth the size of the sphere on top if the scepter. "And whenever my Silent Magician gains a Spell Counter it gains 500 attack points," she explained as the magician's attack rose from 1000-1500. "Now I activate Spell Power Grasp to add another Spell Counter onto Silent Magician!" she explained as the magician's scepter shined in another one fifth section as its attack rose again from 1500-2000. "Now attack Zodiac Scorpio, Magic Destroyer!"

The magician pointed her staff at Scorpio and shot a large blast at it reducing it to dust dropping Destiny's and Jason's life points from 5000-4700. Two lights on Fate's and Rose's duel disk lit up as Scorpio disintegrated. At the end if the turn a card flew out of Rose's deck and into her hand.

"Whenever I use Spell Power Grasp I get another one into my hand, remember?" Rose said revealing the card in her hand. "I'll set two cards face-down and end my turn. Your move, Destiny," she said disdainfully.

"Alright, my draw!" she declared as a third fifth of the magician's scepter raising its attack points from 2000-2500. "Just as I thought," Destiny said. "Every time an opponent draws a card you gain another of those Spell Counters, right?"

"That's correct," Rose said boastfully. "And what're you going to do about it?"

"Let's see," Destiny said looking down at her five cards to find the trap card she drew. _"What the; where did this thing come from?"_ she thought to herself. _"Better yet, what is this thing?"_

The card's picture showed a picture of the four fusion monsters that Destiny used all in a formation and each blasting a center area with their elemental powers.

"You getting scared?" Fate asked mockingly as Destiny continued to read the card and then gasp out of amazement.

"I'll set one card face-down and summon Zodiac Cancer (1600/400) in attack mode!" she called out summoning the large dark blue, transparent crab with the star pattern. "And by his effect is I can copy the effect of another on the field that shares his attribute. So I copy Stargazer Cygnus to bring to my hand Zodiac Pisces (1200/1200) to my hand! Next I activate the spell card Hand Destruction forcing us to discard two cards from our hands and then draw the same amount of cards from our deck!"

Destiny, Jason, and Rose all discarded their cards and then joined Fate in drawing in two new cards. All four people looked at their hands when Destiny looked up from them and then looked over at Fate's field.

"Cancer attack Kuriboh Daidaiiro, Cosmic Pinch!" she ordered as the cancer charged and pinched the orange creature slicing it in half and much to the surprise of everyone else dropped from 5000-4300.

"Hey, what gives?" Fate asked with a pouting face.

"Should my Cancer attack a defense position monster with more than half of the attack of any monster I can inflict the difference as battle damage to you," Destiny explained. "I'll end my turn, do ahead Fate."

"Draw!" she called out. "I summon Kuriboh Murasaki**** (1000/0) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a six creature with violet fur. "Now I activate the spell card Rush Recklessly, giving my Kuriboh 700 extra points," she explained as the purple colored Kuriboh rose to 1700 attack points. "Attack Cancer and get revenge for Daidaiiro!"

The Kuriboh charged with incredible speed and slashed downwards on the crab slicing it in half destroying it and dropping Destiny's and Jason's life points from 4700-4600. Destiny chuckled and looked up at the Kuriboh who met with her eyes and retreated back to Fate's field out of fear.

"I activate my face-down card, Flute of Summoning Kuriboh to bring Kuriboh Kiiro***** (600/0) to the field in defense mode. And with that, I end my turn," Fate declared handing the proverbial baton to Jason.

"Draw," Jason called out and looked at the card and chuckled as a fourth fifth on the Silent Magician's scepter lit up raising its attack to 3000 from 2500. "I activate the spell card Dark Hole!" he said with his voice going down in register. "With this all monsters on the field are destroyed!"

A giant black hole appeared on the bottom of the battlefield fitting the clearing perfectly. Jason's knight was then sucked into the vortex as was Destiny's Cygnus, Rose's Alchemist, and all five of Fate's Kuribohs but for some reason the Silent Magician remained still. Jason looked over and saw that it resisting and succeeding in staying out of the black hole.

"How did you?" Jason was about to ask before he was cut-off.

"It's called Counter Shield," she said revealing a hidden trap with a large upside down triangle with a protective barrier around it. "It prevents my monsters that have Spell Counters to be destroyed by the effects of spell cards for the turn."

Jason looked at the field with the only monster being one at 3000 and both he and Destiny were defenseless.

"I summon a monster in a defense mode," he declared summoning a face-down monster in a horizontal position. "Then I play a face-down card and end my turn."

"Then it's my turn!" Rose said drawing her card. "I activate Spell Power Grasp and place the final Spell Counter on the Silent Magician!" she declared lighting a final section on the magician's scepter. "And with that I can sacrifice it and summon from my deck Silent Magician (3500/1000) in attack mode!" she called out summoning an older and much more mature looking magician with the same design scheme that looked almost identical to Rose. "Now I'll activate the spell card Nobleman of Crossout! This destroys you monster face-down!" she explained as the monster was sliced in half and removed from the game. "Now I'll attack you directly, Destiny!" she said singling her out. "Magic Supremacy!"

The magician pointed her staff at Destiny and fired a fired a giant mass of pure magic that seemingly tore the ground beneath it. Destiny stared right into it and cast her hand over the field.

"I activate my face-down card, Galactic Blessing!" she called out revealing the face-down card as the trap card she had recently read.

* * *

><p>Chapter twelve complete. Well, that answers one question; why does Rose hate Destiny, but now an even bigger question has come up; what the heck is Galactic Blessing? Want to know, tune into the next chapter.<p>

Next time: As the duel draws to a close new rivals appear for others in all aspects of life and the search for Tao continues or more figuring out his entire life. Next time: Double Trouble; Zodiacs and Knights of the Round Table v. Spell Counter and Kuriboh, Part 3, and Terror and Technology; Halloween v. Machine Mavericks.

*Ai: Japanese word for Indigo

**Ao: Japanese word for blue

***Midori: Japanese word for green

****Murasaki: Japanese word for purple

*****Kiiro: Japanese word for yellow.


	13. Double Trouble III, Terror and Tech I

Here's chapter thirteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. As the duel between Destiny, Rose, Jason, and Fate comes to a close a new power is realized and another rival appears and it has something to do with our favorite girl who stays in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin (all rights go to Peanuts). Enjoy!

Currently Destiny has a total of two cards in hand and on her side of the field she has a face-down card revealed now to be a mysterious card called Galactic Blessing and Jason has no cards in hand and one face-down card. The life points remaining between the two of them are 4600.

Currently Rose has three cards in hand and Silent Magician Lv. 8 (3500/1000) on her field while Fate has no cards in hand and no cards on the field. The life points between the two of them are 4300.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel XIII: Double Trouble; Zodiacs and Knights of the Round Table v. Spell Counters and Kuriboh, Part 3. Terror and Technology; Halloween v. Machine Mavericks, Part 1<p>

"I activate my face-down card, Galactic Blessing!" she called out revealing the face-down card as the trap card she had recently read.

Rose, Jason, and Fate all looked at the card in surprise and waited for Destiny to explain the finite details of it.

"What this card does is it allows me to remove three Zodiacs with the same attribute from my graveyard and summon a Celestial Emissary from my deck with the same attribute whenever my opponent special summons a level seven or higher monster from their deck," Destiny explained as Scorpio, Pisces, and Cancer resurrected as spirits and spiraled together making a monster made completely out of vortexes of water. "Meet my final Celestial Emissary, Celestial Emissary Undo (2900/2700)," Destiny declared as the monster placed its feet on the ground in a ground shaking motioning.

"Whatever," Rose said. "All he is to me is space-dust, finish him!"

"Jason, is that card there important?" Destiny asked not looking away from his eyes.

"If you need to use it, then by all means go ahead!" Jason said willing.

"I activate Undo's effect!" Destiny declared as the face-down card on Jason's field disappeared. "I can sacrifice one face-down monster, spell, or trap on the field and negate an attack made by my opponent's monster and end the battle phase automatically!"

The water monster held up its hands and pushed a giant wave that neutralized the attack leaving Destiny and Jason safe. Rose and Fate began chuckling as Rose conceded the turn to Destiny placing down a face-down card.

"Draw!" Destiny declared. _"They're plotting something to destroy Undo and then us. Ever since the rule rewrite if your life points drop below 4000 than one of your teammates is disqualified based on the team's choice. If that were to happen to us which one of us would be the one to go?"_ she thought to herself and then looking at her card. "I play two cards face-down and end my turn!" she declared.

"My draw!" Fate said looking at the card and chuckled. "I summon Rainbow Kuriboh (1400/2000) from my hand in attack mode!" she declared as a creature resembling the previous seven appeared but with fur that appeared to shift in color and with elongated wings made of metal. "This card can only be summoned by having seven Kuriboh with different names in the graveyard, and check this out once per turn I can remove from play a Kuriboh in my graveyard I can deal 500 points of damage to you," she explained as her orange Kuriboh disappeared into a different dimension with the wings shining on the current Kuriboh dropping Destiny's and Jason's life points from 4600-4100. "With that my turn is over," she said.

"_This is getting dangerous, without my other Celestial Emissary cards ready for action I have no shot of helping Jason in this, but maybe…just maybe. That's it!"_ Destiny thought looking back at Jason who drew his card.

"Draw!" he declared. "I play Lancelot, Knight of the Round Table (2000/1000) in attack mode!" he called out summoning his signature knight with the large lance still in his hands. Jason panted knowing that he was the most vulnerable player currently.

"Too bad you can't activate his effect," Rose said tauntingly. "Better luck next time," she said laughing while making a pose similar to Silent Magician.

"Shut up!" Destiny shouted casting her hand over the field. "I activate the final effect of Galactic Blessing! By paying 1000 life points I can not only reduce my opponent's life points to the same amount, but I can allow my partner to draw as many cards that we have removed from play in total equaling to four."

"What, you can't be serious about sacrificing yourself for this guy," Rose said.

"We'll talk after Jason wins this duel for the both of us," Destiny said as both Jason's and her life points dropped to 3100 and Rose's and Fate's dropped to the same amount of 3100. "I disqualify myself by the rules of tag team dueling," she said with a smile backing off.

Jason bowed to her and took the center of the edge of the circle and faced the two girls who looked at each other when Fate backed off leaving just Rose to face Jason.

"You have the best chance to win this now, good luck," Fate said patting her shoulder not receiving so much a shiver from Rose.

Jason drew four cards and then looked back up from them to look at Rose.

"By Lancelot's effect I summon Gaheris, Knight of the Round Table (2500/1000) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning another knight with a simple tunic covering his heavy armor. "And by this card's effect I can summon him straight from my hand, Gareth, Knight of the Round Table (2400/1000) in attack mode!" Jason called out as a knight clad in dark colored armor unsheathed its sword and placed it up against Gaheris'. "And when both of these knights are on the field I can destroy two cards on the field automatically!"

The two knights jumped up and slashed through both Silent Magician and the face-down card behind it as Rose stood there in a daze and the chuckled.

"Since you sent my face-down Magic Designation card to the graveyard I can activate its effect. I declared one level that is currently on the field and no monster that has that level or fewer cannot attack this turn, and next turn I'll just resurrect my monster. So you wasted that effect because I choose level eight and lower monsters," Rose explained. "What now, Sir Knight?"

"This, because I control a Knight of the Round Table I can summon Merlin, Wizard of Camelot (1000/1000) to the field," Jason explained as Rose began to panic. "Now I Synch my Wizard with Gaheris to Synchro Summon Arthur, the King of Camelot (3000/2500) in attack mode!"

The wizard made a motion with his fingers and turned into two rings that surrounded Gaheris and morphed it into an imposing figure of the king that Destiny once faced a while back as it crowned himself and cast out his hand for a large sword to appear in it.

"For every Knight I control my monster gains 500 attack points," Jason explained as the king's attack points rose from 3000-4000. "Finish this, Excalibur Destroyer!" he ordered as the large sword slashed downwards and created a fault line that shot straight towards Rose and hit her directly dropping her life points from 3100-0.

* * *

><p>Rose fell to the ground on her knees and began shivering when she saw Jason offering her his hand to get up. Recoiling back Rose stood up by herself and pushed her back to the tree.<p>

"Why?" she asked as everyone stopped to look at her. "Why did you disqualify yourself so he could duel, Destiny?"

"Because I knew that there was someone who could get the job done better," Destiny said. "Even with that new card."

"And why do you act as though nothing happened between you and Ronald?" Rose asked. "We're in the same rank and he hasn't even noticed me, and yet he's tried to find you, why?"

"I don't know how the male mind works," Destiny said. "Maybe it's because I just like to duel him. You look at him and see someone who can save lives, and I see him as just a friend."

"J-just a friend?" Rose said under her breath.

"Yeah," Destiny answered. "I don't think of him as anyone more than someone I can duel with for fun, and let's face it with all that's gone on I'm lucky if I can get any fun duels in. But I know what you see in him," Destiny said reassuringly. "He gave you that Silent Magician card because to him, that's you."

"What?" Rose asked.

"The Silent Magician by itself isn't very powerful, but give it time and it matures into a beautiful woman," Destiny said showing the difference between the two variations of the card. "But when it really tries hard it barely has any work to do in that journey and it just becomes second nature."

Rose broke down in tears and took Jason's hand and lifted herself up on it to her feet where she faced Destiny and smiled. Jason blushed and averted his eyes and breathed deeply looking at his watch and then shouted out of frustration.

"We're late for class by about an hour!" he shouted as the three girls fell over.

"Why do you think we were dueling you?" Fate asked puffing her cheeks.

"Ah!" Jason hitting his palm with his fist and then looking down at Fate who screamed and began chasing him back to the school with Rose and Destiny following the two of them and smiling at each other.

"Don't think I'm going to let up on you, though?" Rose said as Destiny turned her head to face her.

"Huh?" Destiny asked.

"About Ronald," Rose elaborated. "As far as I'm concerned you're my eternal rival for Ronald, so get ready."

"Uh-huh," Destiny said with a bead of sweat dropping from her brow. _"This is the last thing I needed and what the heck is that over there? Locket and Amun with an Obelisk?"_

Destiny caught up with Jason and pointed over at the scene with the three people in the main courtyard with Jason coming to a screeching halt as Fate ran into him not stopping from running receiving no reaction from Jason. Jason looked at the scene and immediately recognized Amun and Locket and looked at the female Obelisk student with a tank-top underneath her blazer, white pants, silver and black shoes, blue and black fingerless gloves, a hibiscus in her long black hair, and olive tanned skin.

"Why is Locket arguing with Trish?" Jason asked himself.

"Trish?" Destiny asked.

"Trish Stevens is a second year Obelisk Blue and known as the Maverick Mistress among the male duelist and is said to be ruthless against guys in duels," Rose explained. "But what she would want with Amun is beyond me. His first duel here he lost if I remember correctly."

"Yeah," Fate said getting up holding her nose from the fall. "But in his second duel he defeated Locket over there in a single attack from his Egyptian Spirit Scarab monster."

"You heard me right! I'm dueling Amun right now, c'mon kid," Trish said gripping his right arm pulling him towards the Obelisk dueling arena when Locket gripped onto his other arm and began pulling him the other way.

"Let go of him, now!" Locket shouted pulling harder and harder on Amun.

"Not until he agrees to duel me!" Trish shouted back pulling on his other arm even more when Amun made a pained face.

"If you don't stop, you'll both get half of me!" he shouted as both girls let go of his arms when Destiny and Jason came out of the forest with Fate and Rose following after. "Destiny, good, here switch places with me," he said desperately.

"How did this happen?" Jason asked.

"Oh, where to begin?" Amun said going into a flashback.

_In the main school building Locket and Amun entered the class to find both Jason and Destiny not in their seats._

"_Wonder where they went," Locket said looking down at Amun._

"_Well, Jason came by earlier and went into Destiny's room," Amun answered looking up at Locket. "Either they got lost on the way or they went to another location for their own reasons…that first option seems the most likely."_

"_Hey! You, Amun?" a female voice asked out of the crowd._

"_And if I am?" Amun asked as though in challenge._

"_Then we duel!" the girl declared coming out of the crowd._

"_In that case, I'm not," Amun said walking away only for the girl to grip onto his shoulders. "What do you want, and better yet who are you?"_

_The class gasped with surprise and recoiled back as the girl began to anger and then grip onto his shoulder all the harder with no reaction from Amun. Relaxing her grip the girl let Amun go as he turned to face her._

"_Name's Trish Stevens, but people call me the Maverick Mistress," she answered as though in a formal presentation._

"_Yeah, good for you," Amun said walking away again. "And why do I care about some nickname."_

_The class gasped again out of fear as Trish began to growl when a random student whispered something in Amun's ear._

"_Why would I want to run fast and run far just because she's mad at me?" Amun asked looking back at Trish whose eyes almost seemed to read, "I'm going to kill you!"_

"_Oh, that's why?" Amun said nodding and then bolting through the door as other students came in and saw Trish running after him and Locket following quickly after._

_Running through the halls past teachers and students made one of the teachers empty a drink in a tall glass into a nearby sink._

"_That does it," the teacher said. "I'm switching to decaf."_

_Trish began to catch up to Amun when he made a sharp turn to her surprise creating a larger gap between the two of them._

"_You know the last time I did this was being chased by a rabid camel!" Amun said mocking Trish._

"_Coming from you, that sounds believable!" Trish yelled back taking a surprise turn._

_Making it out the main building Amun sighed out of relief and turned to find Trish staring into his eyes._

"_Stupid shortcuts," Amun said to himself. "So why do want to duel me in the first place?"_

"_Because I can't stand guys like you who think you're better than everyone else," Trish answered._

"_When did I say that?" Amun asked._

"_It's written all over your face," Trish answered as Locket finally caught up with them while gasping for air._

"_Could you leave Amun alone?" Locket asked bent over and gasping for air. "He doesn't duel unless a situation demands it."_

"And the rest is left up to your imagination," Amun said seated down between Locket and Trish coming out of the flashback.

"So why don't you two duel?" Destiny suggested as Locket and Trish looked at each other with disgust. "The winner decides if Amun duels Trish or not."

"So what am I?" Amun asked. "First Prize?"

"It appears so," Jason answered as both he and Amun followed the five girls to the Obelisk duel arena. "Where's Kazuya and Gaia when you need 'em?"

"What do you mean?" Amun asked.

"In our current group we have more girls than guys, and that us look more pathetic, and then there's you who's almost afraid to duel," Jason explained.

"I'm not afraid to duel," Amun said pointing at Jason. "I just don't participate in duels that mean nothing."

"Of course," Jason said unconvinced as the seven reached the duel arena with Kazuya and Gaia in front of the arena doors. _"Thank you,"_ Jason thought looking upwards.

"I thought you were planning something Trish so I had Gaia authorize any duel within the next three hours," Kazuya explained showing the group inside and following after Gaia after he went and then locked the door. "This way no unwanted visitors come in."

Trish and Locket both took their places on the duel arena and faced each other and both turned their attention onto Amun who cringed as both of them stared at him. Diving behind Destiny's seat Amun noticed the card Galactic Blessing clutched in her hand.

"_That card, where did she get it?"_ he thought to himself. _"Not only is it one of a kind but its use ranges from regular to tag-team dueling dependant of which Celestial Emissary is used in the duel, but what's more is the card almost changes from duel to duel. It also has an unwritten effect only known to its creator."_

"Duel!" Trish and Locket said in unison with their life points gauges reading 4000.

"I go first!" Locket declared. "I summon Skeletal Being (600/800) in defense mode!" she called out as a large skeleton jumped out of the card with its movements clattering. "I now activate the spell card Reaper's Cloak! With this my Skeletal Being gains an extra 700 defense points," Locket explained as a black tattered cloak wrapped around the skeleton raising its defense points from 800-1500. "Next I'll set a card face-down and end my turn."

"Then it's my move!" Trish said pulling the card from her deck. "I'll also set a card face-down and then summon Machine Maverick Stag (1500/1000) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a mechanical stag whose horns spouted flames when it lowered its head. "And that will end my turn."

"_She's not doing much even though she claims to be this super-powered duelist who could beat anyone with her eyes closed, but why play a monster whose attack is the same as her opponent's monster's defense points when she obviously has more cards in her deck that can combat a mediocre monster like Skeletal Being,"_ Amun thought. _"She's plotting something, and it obviously has to do with summoning a monster with such mediocre attack points. Unless of course…oh bad!"_

"Draw!" Locket shouted as Trish snapped her fingers.

"And now the fun begins. Heads-up Amun, this is what you have to forward to," Trish declared. "I activate the trap card Crush Card Virus!"

The card flipped upwards as a card filled with enlarged germs that shout out at Locket.

"_This can't be good for anyone's health, especially a deck's,_" Amun thought. _"She has the Stag in there to make sure that even when her opponent's use stronger monster's based on principle she counteracts them by destroying everything with a higher attack than the Stag making it the bottom of the top."_

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><p>Chapter thirteen complete. Well that's says a lot now don't it, Now we now a fraction of what Galactic Blessing can do, but if Destiny were to duel more frequently would the effect of it really change? Another thing can Locket survive such a powerful epidemic afflicting her deck? Stay tuned.<p>

Next time: As the duel between Locket and Trish kicks into high gear Kazuya and Gaia do a bit of investigation with Jason on both Tao and Amun. Next time: Terror and Technology; Halloween v. Machine Mavericks, Part 2.


	14. Terror and Technology II

Here's chapter fourteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. Last time a fraction of the power of Galactic Blessing was revealed and according to Amun its power is almost never the same twice dependant on the Celestial Emissary its used in conjunction with. Right now a duel between Locket and an Obelisk Trish who wants to duel Amun for his supposed stuck-up attitude which remains to be seen. And for those of you who recognize the Machine Mavericks from another author know that the author (RoyalshowstopperXII) has sent me this OC with that in mind…I assume.

I know this is basically useless but Locket has four cards in her hand with 4000 life points with a face-down card, a monster Skeletal Being (600/800) which is equipped with Reaper's Cloak which increases its defense by 700 points.

Trish has four cards in her hand, 4000 life points with one monster Machine Maverick Stag (1500/1000) and a face-down card now revealed to be Crush Card Virus. Enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel XIV: Terror and Technology; Halloween v. Machine Mavericks, Part 2<p>

"I activate the trap card Crush Card Virus!" Trish declared activating a card covered with enlarged germs that shot towards Locket. "With this card I can instantly send monsters to the graveyard from your deck that have more than fifteen hundred attack points, so there!"

The germs entered the deck with no reaction from Locket and returned having taken out a total of two cards. Amun, Jason, Destiny, Rose, and Fate all looked with surprise at the minimal amount of powerful cards in her main deck while Kazuya and Gaia chuckled at the scene as Trish was found dumbstruck as she watched the two cards being sent to the graveyard.

"You can't be serious!" Trish shouted angrily. "You only have two cards in that entire deck that are fifteen hundred attack points and above?"

"That appears to be the case," Locket said with a confident smile. "If that's all you have I will continue with my turn with Polymerization!" she declared as a large vortex flew overhead. "And with this card I can fuse together my Horseman's Horse with my Black Cat to make the monster, The Headless Horseman (2000/1800) in attack mode!"

The two monsters appeared for a brief second and were sucked up by the vortex fusing their particles and then reappearing as a character right out of a horror tale; The Headless Horseman pumpkin head and all. The horse hit the ground with its feet with the horseman pulling on the reigns.

"Attack her Stag with Decapitation!" Locket ordered as the Horseman charged the Stag.

The horseman placed its broadsword horizontally and continued to charge the monster that remained motionless. The sword then connected with the neck of the monster slicing it clean off reducing the entire mass to particles dropping Trish's life points from 4000-3500.

"And what's more? Whenever my horseman destroys a monster by battle he gains an extra 200 hundred attack points," Locket explained as the horseman's attack rose from 2000-2200. "Your move," Locket said with her eyes narrowing.

"Oh, I'll move, draw!" Trish shouted pulling the card from her deck. "And I summon Machine Maverick Wolfgang (1900/1200) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a mechanical wolf with blue chrome coating and ice coming out of its mouth spreading and then freezing the Headless Horseman.

"What's happening?" Locket asked as Trish just laughed.

"Whenever my wolf is on the field once per turn I can automatically 'freeze' one of your monsters. Freezing is an effect known only to a few of the Machine Mavericks that prevents the target monster from attacking for a set number of turns, and in the case of my wolf it freezes one of your monsters for three turns," Trish explained while Amun studied the field and put his fist to his head in thought.

"You think of anything, Amun?" Kazuya asked from behind him.

"…No, not a thing," Amun said after hesitating.

"I figured you would've thought about something in terms of what Locket could do with a monster effect like that to deal with," Kazuya said walking over to Gaia who held a laptop in his hands. "Let's start," he said to Gaia who nodded and began typing away at the computer.

"What've you got?" Kazuya asked still watching the duel.

"Take a look for yourself," Gaia said handing him the laptop with the screen completely hidden from the view of the other spectators.

"Now since your monster is frozen I activate the spell card Frigid Impact!" Trish declared back on the battlefield. "With this I can destroy one card that is currently frozen by the effect of my monster!"

The wolf on the field jumped into the air with the help of twin jets attached to its back and then stopped ignition. The penguin began to fall from the sky at increasing speed and then began to spin in mid-air. Increasing the speed even more the wolf rammed into the frozen form of the Headless Horseman and then destroyed it tiny fragments of ice.

"And now you take 100 points of damage for every star it has, granted I can't attack this turn!" Trish explained further.

The ice shards pelted Locket who went into a fetal position as her life points dropped from 4000-3400. Locket stood back up weakly and then looked over at Kazuya who was still reading the laptop curious as he seemed almost surprised by the content of what he looked at. Locket looked back at Amun who bit his thumb in anxiousness and let go of it to look back at Kazuya. Trish ended her turn by placing a card face-down and then conceded the turn to Locket who was still preoccupied by the two boys with their current activities.

"What are guys doing?" Locket asked surprising the two boys from both their trains of thought.

Kazuya looked at Amun who looked at him back and nodded and turned to face Locket and Trish on the battlefield.

"He's looking at my past," Amun said surprising all the girls and Jason in the dome to the point that all looked at Kazuya expecting him to spill. "Go ahead, Kazuya. They'll find out sooner or later. I'm diagnosed as clinically depressed and am certifiably suicidal."

Locket's and Trish's jaw dropped as they saw before them a thirteen old suicidal that they had been with for almost two months at the large academy where secrets are not kept well.

"Kazuya can tell you the rest," Amun said sitting down in his chair throwing his head back.

Kazuya lifted the lid of the laptop and began reading.

"April 14th 2009, eleven-year old, Amun Ra, son of famed archeologist Joseph Robertson, attempted to end his own life based on an increased of secret depression and abuse at the University of Cairo from the other students in the same dorm room. The boy is in stable condition at the Cairo General Hospital and due to his age no further details have been released to the press," Kazuya read from the laptop closing it again and looking over at Amun.

Amun sat up in his chair and sighed heavily with a fake smile, "It all started when my father changed my last name. To get publicity for his family he changed my name to Amun Ra, which is another way of addressing the Egyptian god of the sun. I had been trapped in a pyramid for a long period of time and apparently my father was too busy with his name than to realize that I had done the impossible. By that time I thought that to my father I was nothing but a dollar sign, but when I enrolled at the University of Cairo's accelerated learning program I was shunned, cast away from the other students and in other words…isolated. Two years ago when I was eleven I was told by the students in my form that no one ever cared about and that that was why my mother committed suicide when I was four…in front of my eyes. I can still see it; the gun's barrel up against her forehead, the sound of the bullet firing, and most of all the sound of my mother saying one final thing…'You'll never be fully loved until…'

"After hearing those words from all the students I stole my father's knife and drew a bathtub full of water. All it took was one slice and my wrist was already bleeding. When I reached to the tub with my hand I was stopped by the large hand of my grandfather who bandaged me and took me to the hospital. Everyone who ever bullied me was there and said they were sorry…everyone but my father who just stood in the lobby and talked to the press when my grandfather stopped him from saying anything about me. My grandfather came in and talked to me about clinical depression and being the psychiatrist he is he diagnosed me as depressed, but gave me something he hoped would cheer me up…Egyptian Spirit Scarab. He said that after I came out of the pyramid alive I had passed the test to become the next pharaoh of the scarab. I don't duel because losing depresses me and I don't duel because winning depresses other people which depresses me."

Trish looked back down at Locket who did the same and narrowed her eyes onto Amun with almost rage.

"Idiot," she said under her breath. "The condition still stands! I will duel you if I win this! You think that your problems are too big from keeping you from dueling. You must be stuck-up."

"But right now it's my turn!" Locket declared drawing her card. "I activate the spell card Ghost Fog!" she called out as her field was covered by an eerie feeling fog that hid her Skeletal begin from view. "With this card you only have a 50/50 chance of attacking my monster. Should luck be in my favor your monster attacks you instead. Now I summon Pumpkin Cannon (1200/200) in attack mode," Locket declared summoning a large orange colored cannon with a small goblin at the firing station taking aim. "And that'll end my turn."

"Fine, then it's my turn," Trish said pulling the card from the top of her deck. "First, I activate the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Ghost Fog!" she declared as a giant swirling vortex of a storm swallowed up the fog. "And now, I summon Machine Maverick Hornet (1600/1000)!" she declared summoning a large mechanical hornet that vibrated its wings and called forth three smaller versions of itself. "See, whenever my hornet is summoned I get Hornet tokens (0/0) for every card in my hand in defense mode. Now I play my spell card Rebellion!"

"Say what?" Locket asked.

"Rebellion is a card very much like Creature Swap, but instead I have full choice of what monster goes to either side. So you can have my token while I'll take your Skeleton," Trish explained as the small hornet buzzed over to Locket's side of the field and the Skeletal Being reluctantly walked to Trish's side of the field. "Now, I'll have Wolfgang attack your silly cannon, with Subzero Strike!"

Turning its claws to ice the wolf howled and jumped up and slashed down on the cannon only for it to blast the hornet and destroy them both. As the dust settled Wolfgang dissolved and the cannon was left intact.

"What just happened?" Fate asked from the sidelines.

"It's the special ability of the Pumpkin Cannon," Rose answered. "Whenever it's attacked you can sacrifice one of your monster to have it gain 800 attack points for the turn. It used the hornet as a sacrifice and therefore overpowered the wolf easily."

Trish's life points dropped from 3500-3400 which didn't seem to faze her, but made her chuckle. Locket looked confused when she suddenly felt a sting in her side as her life points dropped from 3400-2900. A metal stinger pierced into her side disappeared when Locket widened her eyes and pointed to the remaining tokens.

"They're bombs, aren't they?" she asked nervously.

"Exactly, they inflict 500 points of damage, but they're interesting little boogers; first, the player who controls them only get's damaged if they are destroyed or sacrificed by a monster, spell, or trap card effect they control, second, the player can inflict that damage to a player if they are sacrificed for a machine monster or are destroyed by battle or by an effect belonging to the opposing player," Trish explained. "Well since I can't do much anymore I'll play a face-down card and end my turn."

Amun still looked at the two dueling and closed his eyes and reopened them at the sound of mad typing at a laptop. Walking over to Gaia and Kazuya with Jason in tow Amun tapped one of them on the shoulder as both he and Jason looked at them expectantly.

"What are you trying to snoop in on now?" Amun asked while the girls all watched the duel with anticipation. "Haven't you revealed a bit too much already?"

"It's not about you," Kazuya reassured as Gaia continued to click at the keyboard. "It's about Tao; we've been trying for almost thirty minutes in this sitting and haven't found anything."

"Let me try," Amun said cracking his knuckles.

"By all means," Gaia said handing him the laptop. "What kind of keywords are you thinking of using?"

"Cryptid," Amun said. "Cryptozoology, cryptozoologist, anything that has to do with who Tao knows. I may even try cryptobotany if I have to, but searching for him directly isn't going to work. You have to follow links through his life."

"How do you know that's going to work?" Jason asked looking over his shoulder.

"Everything in Tao's life has revolved his experiences with the unexplained creatures people call cryptids," Amun explained. "People go crazy for this stuff and anytime one of them makes an appearance the media feeds on it like a frenzy. I've looked at Tao's scars and I'm pretty sure they're two years apart and made at most four years if not six. So we just look at news on the unexplained from six years ago at the earliest and here we go."

Gaia, Kazuya, and Jason leaned forward to find a report on the first recorded attack on a human by the creature Mothman. Not mentioning the child's name Amun began going through links about the unnamed child and found another report about him two years later in Mawman in a similar manner and continued to go through links until the website showed a large face shot of Tao.

Gaia huddled in the corner and said under his breath, "I have been defeated."

"Oh, get off your high horse," Amun said sarcastically and began looking through the article about him not giving a last name for him until he reached a point in the reading that made him fall back along with the other three boys after reading it with him.

* * *

><p>Back on the battlefield Locket pulled her card from her deck leaving her with one card in hand.<p>

"I play the trap card Vampire's Bite! It destroys one of my opponent's monster and then I gain its attack points as life points," Locket explained as a vampiric spirit slowly appeared out of the card and flew forward and bit into the hornet's supposed neck while Locket smirked as her life points rose from 2900-4500. "Now I summon the monster Bat Swarm (800/1000) in attack mode!" she called out as a large swarm of bats screeched onto the field and flapped their wings randomly making it sound applause. "Now I Synch my Bat Swarm (LV3) with my Pumpkin Cannon (LV3) to Synchro Summon The Grim Reaper (1900/2100) (LV6)!"

The bats all lined up and then turned into three separate rings that surrounded the cannon. The rings spun faster turning the cannon into energy that changed it into a ghastly figure with nothing but a cloak that covered his entire body, but did not hide the fact he was floating, a hood that cast a large shadow over his face and showed its eyes as small red lights, and a large scythe.

"Grim Reaper attack Skeletal Being, with Reaper's Slice!" Locket commanded as the figure flew at the skeleton and slashed right though it destroying it and then returning to Locket's graveyard. "And whenever my reaper destroys a monster by battle I can draw cards equal to that monster's level. So since my skeleton was a level three monster I draw three cards," Locket explained drawing three cards from her deck. "Now I'll play a face-down card and then I'll end my turn."

"Then it's my turn, and your final chance," Trish said confidently. "I sacrifice both my Hornet Tokens giving you 1000 points of damage," she reminded as Locket's life points dropped from 4500-3500. "And now I summon Machine Maverick Flame Dragoon (3000/2500) in attack mode!" she declared as a mechanical dragon with flames spouting out of its mouth and a black chrome coating. "Attack, Vengeful Incineration!"

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><p>Chapter fourteen complete. Cliffhanger, for the win! So now we have a story coming up; we have Amun, a suicidal duelist, didn't see that coming…and I wrote it. We have something being discovered about Tao, and now we have Locket facing down a giant mecha dragon that if she doesn't end it soon that thing will. Also, I hope nobody is mad for a creative liberty with some of monsters and spell cards. I hope you understand where I'm coming from when I do this; it makes things more interesting to me and probably to the readers. I made up the abilities that the Headless Horseman and the Grim Reaper and I hope the owner of Locket doesn't mind because if this is going to work out the way I want it to then I have to take initiative about this duel in particular. Until next time, Ja nee.<p>

Next time: The final part of the duel between Locket and Trish is upon us and it's time to introduce a new OC who'll duel against Tao's friend Kazuya and believes that Tao is nothing more than a villain. Next time: Terror and Technology; Halloween v. Machine Mavericks, Part 3, and The Warrior's Path; Windragon Shiron v. Paladins.


	15. Terror, Technology III, Warrior's Path I

Here's chapter fifteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Sorry for being behind my normal pace, but you have to admit it is better than about two months when I didn't update for an entire month. As the duel between Trish and Locket comes to an inevitable close Locket seems to be at a disadvantage due to her being stuck between a mecha dragon and an almost certain defeat. Also, as a fruit of their searching Amun, Gaia, Jason, and Kazuya have found an article on Tao to try to find out more about his past and found very troubling news.

Locket is left with three cards in hand and one card face-down, and one Synchro Monster Grim Reaper (1900/2100) along with having 3500 life points.

Trish is left with no cards in hand and one card face-down as well and the monster Machine Maverick Dragoon (3000/2500) along with having 3400 life points.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel XV: Terror and Technology; Halloween v. Machine Mavericks, Part 3; Warrior's Path; Windragon Shiron v. Paladins, Part 1<p>

"Attack!" Trish commanded to her mecha dragon. "Vengeful Incineration!"

The dragon's mouth filled with gasoline and then ignited and short out towards the ghastly figure as a bead of sweat dropped from Locket's brow. The fire engulfed the grim reaper and destroyed the figure dropping Locket's life points from 3500 to 1900.

"Hey, what gives?" Fate asked. "That dragon has 3000 attack points; to do damage like that it would require 3500 attack points."

"That's true," Trish agreed looking at her. "But whenever my monster battles another monster it automatically gains 500 attack points for every monster my opponent controls."

"Is that all?" Locket said confidently emerging from the receding dust. "Because I'd figure with your reputation that I'd be in a coma by now. I activate my trap card, Dragon's Cave!"

A large vortex appeared out of a card depicting a darkened and desolate cave that sucked in the dragon and forced it inside the card where it disappeared. The card disappeared in the passing wind leaving the field almost completely empty save for Trish's face-down card.

"With this card your monster is removed from the game for five turns," Locket explained.

"Sounds like fun," Trish said confidently. "But that means in five turns that the Dragoon will return."

"Well then I guess I'll just have to turn things around by then, now won't I?" Locket asked rhetorically. "Draw! And I'll just play a card face-down and end my turn."

"That's all?" Trish asked. "Then it's my turn, draw! I summon Machine Maverick Penguin (1600/1000) in attack mode!" she declared as a mechanical penguin jumped out of the card with ice protruding from its beak. "And thanks to its effect I can freeze one of your cards in your hand for three turns."

The ice traveled across the field and then shot upwards to the far left of Locket's three cards rendering it incapable of being used.

"Now, my penguin will attack your life points directly!" Trish said.

The penguin shot out a continuous beam of ice from its beak that traveled straight towards Locket when it stopped almost five feet away from her face. The ice shattered as a large structure appeared that traveled and stopped in front of the penguin.

"Say hello to the Horseman's Guillotine," Locket explained. "When one of my opponent's monsters attacks I can automatically destroy it!"

The penguin was then fitted into the large wooden frame and locked in. A large blade appeared across the top of it and then dropped slicing off its head instantly destroying it.

"I guess that ends my turn," Trish said when a hole opened in the field.

A large mechanical arm shot out of it and latched onto the edge with a large roar sounding from the bottom.

"Since your turn is over the first of the five turns is also over until your dragon comes back," Locket explained. "But now it's my turn, draw! I summon my Giant Pumpkin (1400/1200) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a large pumpkin with jagged teeth and a candle inside its mouth. "Attack, Candle Fire!"

The pumpkin opened its mouth spewing out a stream of fire that engulfed Trish's body dropping her life points from 3400-2000. Trish cringed as she stood up with a similar fire in her eyes that the pumpkin just attacked her with.

"I play my face-down card, Solitude!" she declared as a card showing a picture of a lone monster in front of a full moon. "Whenever I take more than 1000 points of direct damage I can summon a level six Machine Maverick from my deck, and I choose Machine Maverick Mantis (2450/1800) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a green plated mechanical praying mantis to the field.

"I'll end my turn," Locket declared disdainfully.

Trish was about to draw her card when all five girls heard Amun madly typing at the computer. All four of the guys looked at the computer screen with disbelief in their eyes drawing in the attention of the five girls both participating in and watching the duel.

"What have you found out now that's so wonderful?" Trish asked slightly angry.

"It's about Tao," Amun said not looking up from the screen.

Destiny jerked her head around and took the computer from Amun and began reading the article about Tao's past and began to quicken when she fainted in her seat as Gaia took the computer and began reading from the article.

"This is a personal narrative by Tao so don't be surprised by the way he describes things.

"My name is Tao, well at least now it is, I am currently fourteen years old, and I may have the worst lives in the history of bad lives. I've been the victim of two attacks by monsters that people say don't exist, I have been both abused by my parents and recently been abandoned by them. But it wasn't always like this, you know. The part that makes my life the worst is that I lost so much.

"I've met people in the many countries I've visited, but every time I've had to leave them with no recollection of myself since I was three years old. In my life I've met a girl with the ability to see hidden meanings and predict the future, a boy who has twin personality, a knight from medieval times, a boy who survived going through a pyramid, a girl who has an unhealthy attachment to all things Halloween, a boy who is obsessed with finding a real dragon, a girl who hates to lose to anyone, especially boys, a girl who will sympathize with anyone of you plant you ideals in her head first, a girl who hates another for something the other doesn't even know about, and so many more people, but what brought this montage of misfits together was the game of Duel Monsters. Before I had to move I would duel them and each one made an impression on my now dying heart.

"My godfather has just informed me that I have less than three years to live and to find a cure for an almost incurable disease. I have promised myself one thing…that my life will not end with me being the boy who never had a chance, but the boy that was strong enough to go against the odds, but even as I write I can feel the scars spreading down my arm. The used to be just small scratches on my shoulders but now they are almost halfway down my arm. As the scars spread they infect my heart, they make me into someone I'm not, but what's the most sad part of this I can never tell anyone goodbye because if I can't this I will die alone off in the distant recesses of the world. To those of whom with the heart to read this all the way through, I thank you and wish you well in life. My life is forever in pain because of what those dirty rats made me into."

Gaia closed the lid of the laptop and his eyes and walked back over to the far sidelines and sat down solemnly with the rest of the populace looking at each other.

"I can't believe we've all met Tao down the road," Rose said.

"Am I really that manipulative?" Fate asked randomly.

"I don't think we should worry about that for right now," Amun said with his hands folded. "The point is we now know more about Tao then he wanted us to know. We know he is terminal and that he is capable of taking anything he wants from people because of his power and his unwillingness to lose unless it's by his own hand. This became apparent when he 'lost' to Gaia's alter ego, Aigis."

"More importantly," Trish spoke up. "We have a duel to finish."

The other people looked at her disapprovingly except for Gaia and Kazuya.

"She's right," Gaia said. "Once a duel is instigated it can't be stopped until a winner is decided. What's more? The more we duel the more we can prepare for his return and then defeat and heal him on our terms."

"…I never thought of it like that," Locket said looking up. "Let's go!"

"All right, draw!" Trish declared. "I play my spell card, Seven Completed! This spell card gives any machine monster 700 extra attack points," she explained with the mantis' attack rising from 2450-3150. "Now attack with Mechanical Machete!"

The mantis disappeared for any instant and then reappeared behind Locket and then sliced her back with two blades on its arms dropping her life points 1900-375. Falling forward Locket watched the mantis disappeared again and reappeared on Trish's side of the field. Getting back up with a strain Locket looked up at Trish and expected an explanation.

"It's very simple," Trish explained. "My mantis has the ability to halve its attack and then attack you directly. I concede the turn to you," she declared as the hole in the middle began to rumble with a mechanical leg with claws gripping onto the hole from the opposite side of the current revealed arm.

"Then it's my turn, draw!" Locket declared looking at the card and the one in her hand that was frozen. "I switch my pumpkin to defense mode and end my turn with a face-down card."

The audience watched Locket as she panted from exhaustion and then over at Trish who did the same.

"My move, draw!" Trish declared. "Now I attack with my Mantis, Mechanical Machete!"

The mantis employed the same tactic as before and then froze in place much to the surprise of everyone.

"I activate the quick spell card Pumpkin Smash! It destroys every card on the field that has Pumpkin in its name and then you take 300 points of damage," Locket explained as the candle from inside the former pumpkin fell to her feet and exploded dropping her life points from 2000-1700.

"What's your point?" Trish asked expectantly.

"As long my pumpkin is in the graveyard your Mantis cannot attack," Locket explained as the mantis returned to its field.

"I end my turn," Trish declared as the second of the dragoon's arm shot out of the hole and gripped onto the edge.

"I'm assuming it's my turn, draw!" Locket said taking the initiative. "I'll simply play a face-down card and end my turn."

"That's all? Then it's my turn!" she said drawing her card. "I sacrificed my Mantis for Machine Maverick Spider (2000/2500)!" she declared summoning a green chrome painted monster, but this time one of the arachnid persuasion. "Now I take the initiative and attack you for the game, Toxic Web!"

The spider shot out a large web from its mouth that shot towards Locket when her face-down card blocked its path stopping it in its tracks. The card showed the grim reaper with a scythed that traveled in a complete circle around its body.

"This is the Reaper's Judgment, it stops your attack and then determines your monster's fate," Locket explained vaguely. "With that all I have to do is flip this coin and you guess heads or tails if you guess right than I lose, if not your monster is destroyed," Locket explained more thoroughly holding up a coin with a jack o lantern face on the front and the backside of it on the other.

Trish hesitated as the coin traveled through the air and though for several seconds wracking her brain when the coin landed on top Locket's hand as she covered it with her other.

"Your decision?" Locket asked tauntingly.

"…Tails!" Trish shouted.

"Sorry, you lose," Locket said as a spirit body shot out of the card and sliced the spider in half.

"I end my turn," Trish said as the fourth leg gripped onto the edge of the hole signaling that only one more turn until the dragoon would return.

"Then it's my go," Locket said drawing a card. "And I'm going to pass this turn."

"Then it's my turn, draw!" Trish declared and looked at her cards disdainfully. _"No monsters, and even I did I probably couldn't summon it. Ergh, what makes this little girl so obnoxious? It's worse than dealing with all those loud mouth boys that I had to deal with when my father took me to his work on 'Take Your Child to Work' day. Why is she so good with such a weak deck of cards? I have no monsters, but if I can hold out till next turn I can take her down with my dragoon, yeah that's what I'll do."_

Trish looked at Locket and shrugged her shoulders, "My turn is over," she declared nonchalantly as the dragoon shot the rest of its body out of the hole and took its place on Trish's side of the field. "If you can't come up with something soon, then it's over."

"We'll see about that," Locket said drawing her card. "Since it's been more than three turns the effect of your penguin's freezing ability is canceled," she reminded as the frozen card thawed. "And now I'm free to use this card, Graveyard Resurrection! This card automatically brings back a dark attribute Synchro monster from my graveyard, its effect is negated, and I cannot attack with it the turn it is summoned. So I summon the Grim Reaper in defense mode!" she declared bringing back the cloaked figure.

"You're going somewhere with this?" Trish asked unconvinced. "You're basically summoning dragon fodder."

"Oh, I'm not done," Locket said. "Now I summon my Halloween Bat (300/500) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a black and orange bat flapping its wings erratically. "Now I tune my Halloween Bat (LV2) to my Grim Reaper (LV6) to Synchro Summon my Halloween Dragon (2800/2500, LV8) in attack mode!"

The bat turned into two rings that covered the Grim Reaper and forced six similar lights to shine. The lights shined brighter and the two monsters bonded and formed a giant black dragon with an orange under belly, orange eyes, and spikes with pumpkin like designs lining its back. The spectators looked at the giant monster in amazement when Amun looked up unimpressed.

"It's still too weak," he said plainly.

Locket fell over on foot and planted both of her feet on the ground and looked at Amun angrily and then calmed her expression and then held a final card in her hand.

"I play Pumpkin Patch!" Locket declared placing the card in the hidden slot on the end of the duel disk conjuring a field of pumpkins lit by a full moon with a giant pumpkin on top of a large hill. "With this spell card all my monsters gain 1000 extra attack points, so attack with Pumpkin Flare!"

The dragon's attack rose from 2800-3800 as it blasted an orange flame from its mouth in the shape of a jack o lantern that the mechanical dragon tried to fight back with its own flame from the ignited gasoline. The mecha dragon's attack rose from 3000-3500, but was still overpowered and was destroyed with a final roar. Trish's life points dropped from 1700-1400 as Locket looked at her confidently.

"Is that it?" Trish asked regaining her confidence.

"Nope," Locket replied plainly.

"Huh?" Trish asked.

"Whenever my dragon destroys a monster by battle you take damage equal to half of the attack points of your monster," Locket explained as the dragon strained and blasted a large fire from the multitude of spikes that literally incinerated Trish's life points from 1400-0.

Trish fell to her knees and looked down at the ground as Locket walked up to her.

"I didn't want to, you know," Locket said.

"Didn't want to what?" Trish asked standing up.

"Win," Locket answered much to the surprise of everyone else. "For a while, I wanted you to duel Amun to get him to realize that dueling is supposed to be fun and that it shouldn't cause you to be depressed no matter what the outcome. So let's both do our best to get him to realize that."

Amun gulped and looked at the other two with a worried expression. _"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"_ he thought to himself.

* * *

><p>One week later Kazuya walked along the path to the school and entered the school building and sat in his seat rather drearily. Looking down at the Slifer Red area Kazuya looked down at the seat that Tao always sat in and sighed depressively.<p>

"_He's only been gone for a week and already it feels like the entire two years that I didn't see him after my parents took be back and left him for dead like everyone did,"_ Kazuya thought with his head propped on one hand. _"Then finding out that he'll die within five or six months doesn't help at all. Ergh, why did he have to hide everything from us?"_

A slam on his desk from the teacher broke his train of thought as the teacher stared at him with cold eyes.

"Just don't follow your friend, Tao," the teacher said reprimanding him in front of the class who all chuckled as Kazuya nodded and for the rest of class wracked his brain over Tao's reasons staying completely emotionless.

After class ended Kazuya left the building slowly and still depressed when he heard a small beep on a pager. Picking it up he read the words, "Come to the Obelisk dueling arena if you want more information about your friend."

Jumping at the summon Kazuya bolted past students and teachers and reached the Obelisk dueling arena within a few minutes to find the arena empty save for an Obelisk student who stood at approximately six feet tall, with a lean muscular build, light skin tone, light brown eyes and hair that fell over his forehead and ears. The doors slammed shut and locked keeping Kazuya inside.

"And you would be?" Kazuya asked cautiously.

"Mori Takai," the boy said. "And now your opponent," he said throwing a duel disk at Kazuya.

"Why would I agree to duel someone like you?" Kazuya asked beginning to get annoyed.

"Because you know I know something you want to know," Mori said. "And I want to know something about your friend as well," he said narrowing his eyes.

"Like what?" Kazuya said narrowing his eyes as well.

"His whereabouts so I can take my revenge on him!" Mori shouted.

"I don't know where he is, but I will duel you to find out what you know," Kazuya said activating the duel disk. "Just make sure you come up on your end of the bargain when you lose."

"You can't know who'll win or lose," Mori said activating the duel disk in kind. "But enough talk, actions speak louder than words!"

"Duel!" the two shouted in unison.

"My move first!" Kazuya declared. "I summon Espada Eagle (1600/700) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a green feathered eagle with streaks of gold in its feathers and eyes. "Next I'll play three cards face-down and end my turn."

"That's all?" Mori asked tauntingly. "Draw! I summon Guardian of Striking Thunder (1300/2000) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a warrior clad in almost no armor but a montage of tunics and a large shield and long thin bladed sword. "Now, I'll also place three cards face-down and end my turn."

"My draw!" Kazuya declared.

"And because it is, Guardian of Striking Thunder takes a slash out of your life points, Thunder Blade!" Mori explained and commanded.

The blade held by the warrior shined a spectral yellow and then shot three bolts of lightning at Kazuya each one taking out 100 points of damage leaving him with 3700 life points. Kazuya strained slightly and held onto his chest and rose to his feet and straitened his legs and pointed at Mori.

"This duel is far from over and when it is you'll tell me everything you know about Tao!" he declared looking into Mori's eyes who simply stared back never shifting his physical emotions.

* * *

><p>Chapter fifteen complete. Again I'm sorry for the late update after telling you that I would have it by a certain date (bows apologetically). Please don't flame me. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. I swear school is the archenemy of all fanfic writers.<p>

Next time: Kazuya continues his duel with the completely emotionless Mori who seems to be blaming Tao for something. Whether that's going be described is anyone's guess. And In an attempt to cure Amun's duel fear the girls bring in a girl who finds the best in anyone by bringing out her worst. Next time: Warrior's Path; Windragon Shiron v. Paladins, and Egyptian Spirits v. Mahou Shoujo, Part 2.


	16. Warrior's Path II

Here's chapter sixteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. I would like to take this opportunity thank everyone who has submitted an OC except for some people who, quite frankly, have really annoyed me, and they know who they are through subtle hints. Well, anyways every one, enjoy!

To recap Kazuya has been challenged by a person who wishes to take revenge against Tao for something that still remains unknown. Kazuya is left with 3700 life points, three cards in hand, and three cards face-down and one monster, Espada Eagle (1600/700) in attack mode.

Kazuya's opponent, Mori Takai, has two cards in hand, 4000 life points, three cards face-down and one monster, Guardian of Striking Thunder (1300/2000) in defense mode.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel XVI: Warrior's Path; Windragon Shiron v. Paladins and Egyptian Spirits v. Mahou Shoujo, Part 2<p>

"You do realize that the only way you'll get me to talk about him is to beat me, right?" Mori asked in a challenging manner.

"I'm aware," Kazuya answered. "But, I swear, that if you try to exact some sick revenge on an innocent man you will have me to contend with!"

"Innocent?" Mori asked in disbelief. "The only thing that man is innocent of is murder, and I'm sure that's next on his list! Enough talk, continue the duel!"

"_What did he mean by that?"_ Kazuya thought looking up from his cards to glare at Mori and back down. _"Has Tao committed some crime I'm not aware. That can't be, I only left him for two years, and he hasn't changed in the least nor was there any news like that. A boy in his situation committing a crime and the media not feeding on it like an all-you-can-eat buffet? There's more to this than I know, but I can't risk that information on a duel, then I'll have to employ a few tricks of my own to get him to spill on even the most trivial detail."_

"I summon, from my hand, Wind Saga Kazaki (1800/1300) to the field in attack mode!" Kazuya declared summoning a fantasy-esque figure with a long green cloak flowing over his body and a hood over his head. "And because I can control Kazaki I can summon, from my hand, Windragon Shiron (1900/1400) in attack mode!" he explained summoning the white dragon with a pilot's cap. "Now I activate my first face-down card, Whisper Winds! With this I can return the card in my hand for a wind monster in my deck," he explained as the card in his hand shot from his shot and returned to the deck and another card shot out in its place. "And now, I'll end my turn."

Mori stayed perfectly still and never swayed in his emotions and even scoffed Kazuya's monsters. Mori closed his eyes and placed his fingers on his next card and pulled it off the deck.

"My move!"

* * *

><p>Back on campus Amun walked nonchalantly past students who paid him no mind as he returned back to the Slifer dorm. Stretching his arms Amun flung off his red blazer and fitted on the cloak he wore when dueling Locket on Halloween. Looking over the hieroglyphs again Amun sighed depressively and fell onto the bed in a heap asleep.<p>

His eyes flicked as he heard a sound from the outside his door as though something were rotating up against it. Pressing his ear against the door Amun closed his eyes and then opened them in a panic and opened his window jumping from it. The door fell from its hinges with Trish flipping a screwdriver up and down from her hand.

"That was just too easy," she remarked looking at the fallen door.

"It would've been better if Amun stayed in his room," Locket commented noticing the opened window.

"Is he that afraid of dueling casually?" Destiny asked appearing from behind Trish.

"It would appear so," Fate replied appearing from behind Destiny.

"Well, what now?" Rose asked appearing behind Fate.

"…First," Trish said with a vein popping on her head. "Get off me!" she shouted as each of the girls from Destiny to Rose was piled on top of her with Trish barely able to stand.

"Amun…" Locket whispered under her breath out of concern.

Amun began running down the path to the back forests after hearing the sound of approaching footsteps he assumed were Destiny and the others.

"They don't know when to quit do they?" Amun asked himself while still running.

Diving into the bushes Amun stayed and waited for the footsteps to pass by. As he heard them go by Amun sighed out of relief and stood up and heard somebody chuckling mischievously with sweat dropping from Amun's face like a waterfall. Looking up Amun found a girl in a male Obelisk uniform looking down at him. Recoiling back into the open area Amun looked up at her to find her of oriental descent, brown hair reaching down to about her shoulders split between the two sides of her face with bangs, and then looking up and down Amun noticed a small curve framing her body making her look a bit like an hourglass.

"Anything I can help you with?" Amun asked nervously standing up.

The girl threw a duel disk to him which he caught and then threw back in the same instant.

"If that's what you're expecting, don't," Amun said walking back when Locket, Destiny, Trish, Rose, and Fate surrounded him from all sides minus the side the girl was on. "And apparently, there is a pointed argument against me leaving I'm assuming."

"That'd be it," Locket said cheerfully looking back at the girl who threw the duel disk back to Amun.

"Before I accept this challenge," Amun started. "Who are you?"

"Yukie Kujo," the girl said in a soothing voice. "Now, let's duel!" she shouted activating her duel disk.

Amun did the same and took a weak stance as opposed to Yukie's much stronger appearance. "Makes you wonder who's the more feminine, don't it?" Amun asked sarcastically.

Yukie didn't flinch and instead shot him a cross look that made Amun shiver in fear. "So why're helping these girls anyway?"

"Because I can't stand hypocrites!" she shouted. "And you're the worst of them all; you come to this school and don't even duel until you're forced into one, what's the point?"

"I have my reasons," Amun said looking up at the sky and then straight forward to Yukie. "I have the first move!" he declared. "I summon Egyptian Spirit Isis (1600/1000) in attack mode and end my turn!" he declared summoning a woman with two wings attached to her arms.

"Then I have the move," Yukie declared drawing her card. "I summon Mahou Shoujo Houka (1500/700) in attack mode as well and place two cards face-down and end my turn!" she declared summoning a young girl holding along staff with a fire at the top in a loose fitting robe and dress underneath with blazing red hair.

"_Either that monster's bait for Isis, or those face-downs are just a bluff and the real threat is the pipsqueak in red,"_ Amun thought. _"Nevertheless, I can't risk attacking, but if I play a similar tactic…"_

"My draw!" Amun declared. "I play my spell card Curse of Tut!" he shouted as a large mummy case shot out of the ground and took the field behind Isis. "Next, I place three cards face-down and end my turn."

"Curse of Tut?" Fate repeated confused by the card. "What's that mean?"

"Tutankhamen was a pharaoh of Egypt thousands of years ago and very notable for being only thirteen when he ascended to the throne," Rose explained. "When his tomb was discovered everyone working on the site all died by unknown circumstances so people began to believe that Tutankhamen placed a curse on his tomb to ward off grave diggers or treasure hunters."

"Thirteen? Hey, isn't that how old Amun is?" Fate recalled.

"That's right, but his power has nothing to do with the young pharaoh," Locket explained. "His power is all about the Scarab hiding in his deck."

"So what does that card do exactly?" Yukie asked looking at the shining mummy case.

"Why don't you try and find out?" Amun said confidently.

"Wha-?" Yukie exclaimed as she looked at the case again and found nothing as far as a hint to find out it's meaning. "My draw!" she declared drawing her card from the top of her deck. "Take this! I play my face-down card, Mystical Space Typhoon! With this I destroy you Curse of Tut magic card without any worries."

"Too bad your worries are just beginning," Amun said casting his hand over his field. "Because with Isis' ability, any card adjacent to it cannot be affected by spell or trap cards."

As the giant cyclone appeared the winged goddess flapped it swings in defense and created its own whirlwind that dispelled the one cast by Yukie. The goddess returned to its place back on Amun's field in front of the mummy case.

"Fine, I summon Mahou Shoujo Mizu (1400/500) in attack mode!" she declared summoning a young girl like Houka but with a staff with water circling around it and with a blue dress and hair. "And when she's summoned to the field I can summon another Mahou Shoujo from my deck like Mahou Shoujo Kaze (800/1300) in defense mode!" she declared summoning a third girl with the same design scheme as the two preceding her but with green hair held up in pig-tails and a small scepter instead of a staff with a small cyclone circling it. "And now I synch my Mahou Shoujo Kaze (LV2 tuner) with my Mahou Shoujo Mizu (LV3) to Synchro summon a level five monster."

"Over my dead body!" Amun shouted snapping his fingers and then pointed to the left most face-down card. "I play Anubis' Scale! With this card as long as I have fewer monsters than you, you are unable to summon any monster above level five," he explained shrugging his shoulders.

"I hate kids," Yukie said under her breath.

Drawing his card Amun sighed depressively and then looked back at Yukie who glared at him. Giving off a fake smile Amun looked back at the other girls blocking his path.

"Y'know," Amun started. "That's one of the nicer looks I've gotten in my life," he explained referencing Yukie's glare. "But each time it made me stronger, but took away part of the old me and replaced it with this new and improved me."

"You call this new and improved?" Yukie asked keeping her head down. "You think that distancing yourself is the best way to make yourself stronger? Well let me tell you, you're dead wrong, and you will really be dead if you continue to think like that!"

"Oh the stories I could tell you," Amun said in a challenging manner.

"Let me tell you…" Yukie said reminiscing.

* * *

><p>"My move!" Mori shouted pulling the card from his deck and then looking down on it and then at his three face-down cards. "Now for some fun, I summon Guardian of Walking Nights (17001300) in attack mode!" he declared summoning another warrior, but this one in darkened armor that barely would protect him from a frontal assault with a blackened out sword unsheathed and pointed at Kazuya threw his monsters. "Now attack his overgrown chicken! Nightmare Sword!" he commanded pointing to Espada Eagle.

The warrior lifted the sword above his head and slashed downward causing a giant shockwave that travelled towards and destroyed Espada Eagle dropping Kazuya's life points from 3700-3600. Kazuya panted as Mori continued to look down on him with unwavering and dead eyes.

"What happened to you?" Kazuya asked surprising Mori. "Nobody can be born with the need of revenge unless there's a reason that is bred over time and eventually wins over."

"It wasn't something that happened over time," Mori corrected. "It was a snap decision after what your _friend_ did to me."

"Tao would never actually knowingly hurt another human unless he actually needed to," Kazuya said beginning to anger as his eyes began to narrow and become more of an icy blue shade. "What's your proof that Tao is a criminal?"

"He took my emotion," Mori said looking down at his hands. "Everything I ever was, everyone I ever knew, and every time I ever felt is nothing but a distant dream to me now. Tao and I trained together to become master duelists at the same training facility in Hong Kong. He was known only as the boy who was truly Yin and Yang, but I was known as the Paladin of All. I could control any power in dueling and because of this I was congratulated time after time and I was as happy as I could ever hope to be.

"It was a year and a half ago, the day before I joined Duel Academy. Tao and I dueled for the right to be considered the best on China and we dueled like we always had. By the end of it we were left with 100 life points apiece and it was my turn. I had a monster out with only 50 attack points more than Yin Yang Warrior so I took the initiative. I destroyed it and activated the final effect of Chaos Trial. I thought I had it in the bag, but out of the randomness of it all he drew the last monster possible in his deck. He had wasted all his monsters trying to play that stupid card and then when he had a 1/17 chance he drew his monster and I lost."

"Ooh, the fiend," Kazuya said sarcastically. "Let's go find him so we can replay it," he said also sarcastically.

"That wasn't the point I was getting at!" Mori shouted angrily. "When I lost, by that time Tao was as distant as the sun is from Pluto. He walked up to me and placed his hand over my head and began chanting some weird words that Ninomiya began to fret over. When he was done he lowered his hand to touch my head and then he said to me five words, 'say goodbye to your feelings.' I felt as though the life was being sucked out of me, and I mean that literally, and when I woke up I couldn't even tell if I was feeling glad or sad that I was still alive, but there was only one feeling left in my body; rage. I vowed that day to get revenge for my lost emotions that Tao stole for his idiotic reasons."

"And that would be?" Kazuya asked.

"He never said," Mori replied. "But Ninomiya never seemed the same after that, and, HEY! That was supposed to be confidential!"

"'Was' is the key-term there," Kazuya said jokingly.

"Enough talk!" Mori said for a third time. "Take your turn, and be careful because it might be your last."

"Fine, draw!" Kazuya declared.

"And don't forget about Guardian's effect," Mori reminded. "During your draw phase you take 300 points of damage."

The warrior pointed its sword at Kazuya and shot out three consecutive bolts of lightning dropping his life points from 3600-3300. Kazuya panted and looked back down at his two cards.

"I pass this turn, and automatically end it," Kazuya declared nonchalantly.

"And because your turn is over, my Guardian of Walking Nights takes away 400 of your life points and gives 100 points back to me," Mori explained as the dark-armored warrior thrust the sword above his head and slashed at the air four times each time producing a large beam of shadow that stuck Kazuya dropping his life points from 3300-2900 and then granting Mori more points boosting him from 4000-4100.

"Now, it's my turn!" Mori shouted drawing his card. _"Why does this guy irritate me so much? Wait! Irritation? Isn't that an emotion? No! That can't be right, if that's the case then that means Tao is…"_ Mori thought to himself shaking his head. "I summon Guardian of Sagacity Flames (1500/1500) in attack mode!" he declared summoning another warrior with a red tunic, with armor underneath it and a fire red sword. "Now I activate the spell card Iai Blow!" he shouted activating one of his face-down cards. "With this I flip three coins, for each heads you lose one of your cards on the field, for every tails one of my cards on the field is destroyed."

Three coins flipped into the air and spun uncontrollably as they landed on the ground; two tails and one heads. The three coins began to tremble and then shot out striking Windragon Shiron, Guardian of Walking Nights, and Guardian of Striking Thunder. As the three monsters disintegrated into dust Mori began twitching his left eye in frustration.

"Well," Kazuya said shrugging his shoulder. "All's well that ends well I guess, well for some people."

"Shut-up," Mori said annoyed. "I activate the equip spell card Hoarfrost Blade giving my Guardian an extra 400 attack points," he explained as the warrior's fire red sword began to tint into a light blue raising its attack from 1500-1900. "Now attack, Blaze Blizzard!"

The warrior collided with the cloaked figure that began conjuring a wind barrier that broke through the sword. The blade that was broken off then flipped into the air and fell onto the cloaked figure destroying both monsters.

"Well, this evens things out," Mori said ending his turn.

"How do you mean?" Kazuya asked.

"Whenever a monster equipped with Hoarfrost Blade destroys another monster by battle it prevents you from normal summoning another monster until after my next turn," Mori explained. "Which means you'll be defenseless the next time I attack!"

"Not exactly," Kazuya said drawing the card from his deck. "I remove from play Windragon Shiron to special summon from my hand Spiritual Windragon Shiron (2000/1400) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a monster similar in design to its earlier form but with armor on its arms, legs, and chest. "Now, attack him directly with Spiritual Tornado Rage!"

The dragon heaved in a giant breath and blew out a giant tornado that almost shrieked as it blew towards Mori who stared into the eye of the storm.

"I play my face-down card!" he declared activating the second of his original three face-down cards. "Sidewinder! When my opponent declares an attack I can negate and destroy the monster by returning one card from my hand into my deck," he explained placing his final card from his hand into his deck. "And since the card I returned was one of my Guardian monsters I can destroy that card behind your former dragon!"

A blast resembling a slashing sword blasted from the card's picture and slashed directly through the larger version of Shiron and then through the face-down card behind it. Kazuya looked through the wreckage that was both of his cards destroyed by Mori's trap.

"I end my turn," Kazuya declared leaving him with only one card in hand as opposed to the complete lack of cards in Mori's.

"My move!" Mori shouted looking at the single card he drew and then at the face-down card on his field. "I summon, Guardian of Dauntless Souls (1900/1200) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning another warrior with blond hair, and armor like a knight's that was white and lined in gold. "Now I attack you directly, Paladin Sword Strike!"

The knight then ran up to Kazuya and struck him on the side of his arm dropping his life points from 2900-1000. Kazuya panted as he gripped his arm and cringe in pain. Kazuya looked back up and saw Mori's face who began to look at his hands in complete surprise.

"What's up?" Kazuya asked. "You don't look like yourself, and by that I mean emotionless, crude, and almost dead in the eyes."

"Ever since this duel began I felt something," Mori said looking up. "You irritate me, you know? You irritate me to no end, but even irritation is an emotion, granted not a good one. But it puzzles me that just now watching you cringe in pain after my attack made me want to jump up and say, 'And that's how you duel!' It's what I used to say every time I won a duel against somebody, or made a nice combo, or something worthy of praise. But this is also a bad omen for both me and you."

"What do you mean?" Kazuya asked.

"Magic is only active as long as the user is also active," Mori explained. "If the same principal applies to him and my emotion loss and sudden return it can only mean a few if not only two things."

"And those would be?" Kazuya asked.

"Either he's losing his power, or we should assume the worst…" he answered solemnly.

* * *

><p>Back in the forests Yukie and Amun continued their duel after their outbursts against each other.<p>

"My move!" Amun shouted with dead eyes. "I summon Egyptian Spirit Sphinx (0/2500) in defense mode!" he declared summoning a giant creature made entirely of stone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. "And now I play my face-down card, Osiris' Eye! With this the only monster you are allowed to attack is my Sphinx. With that, my turn is over."

"My move, draw!" Yukie called out. "I activate my face-down card, Matured Magic! With this I can sacrifice two of my Mahou Shoujo monsters and summon a Mahou Shoujo Synchro Monster. So by sending both Mizu and Kaze to the graveyard I can summon Mahou Shoujo Denkou (2400/1000) in attack mode!" she declared as the two young girls left the field in an electric yellow light which brought forth another girl who seemed as old as Yukie herself with long blond hair with green streaks running down to her back holding a large staff with a multitude of lightning at the tip.

The girl shifted her eyes to the sphinx and then shot the staff's lightning at it reducing it to literal rubble. Amun looked past the stones flying from the center of the spot where it stood with a misplaced smile as an eye on the mummy case lit up as a spectral black light.

"What the heck?" Yukie exclaimed noticing the change on the mummy case.

"The Curse of Tut card is one of a kind," Amun explained. "When an Egyptian Spirit is sent to the graveyard from anywhere it gains what is called a Curse Counter, and once it reaches ten I can do something that people say can plague someone for life. Have fun figuring it out…" he said as his cringed holding onto his wrist.

Gripping onto his sleeve and then pulling it down Amun's eyes widened to find a bracelet around his wrist with a large ruby embedded onto it. Amun gasped in surprise and began to cringe and almost gagged at the sight of it.

"What's wrong?" Locket asked stepping towards him.

"My ruby is back," he said in utter shock. "After my duel with you Locket I collapsed and was out until the next morning. Tao was the one to take me back, but I never told anyone about this ruby at the time. I found it in the pyramid next to the card of Egyptian Spirit Scarab and ever since I've been like this. When Tao took me back I had this horrible dream; in it Tao appeared before me and charged me with wings from a moth and an owl and then he slashed me with elongated claws for his fingers that looked like talons and looked at me with eyes red as blood. I woke up in a sweat and realized the ruby was gone, and Tao it's thief."

"You're point being?" Rose asked.

"There is a basic principle in any magic; it's only active so long as the user is too," Amun said solemnly. "If my ruby is back, then most likely Jason's gemstone is as well and Tao…Tao is probably…"

* * *

><p>Chapter sixteen complete. Epic cliffhanger, don't you think? Well, that says a lot about some of the characters even if some have still yet to be revealed. Mori's revenge has been discovered, Amun's demeanor revealed, and Tao's secret, to be revealed in the next chapter. Ja nee.<p>

With the final part of the duel between Mori and Kazuya quickly approaching and the duel between Amun and Yukie also continuing mysteries abound in several things, the full extent of Shiron's power, the Curse that has plagued Amun for almost seven years, the mystery behind Yukie's resolve to duel against and help Amun's problem, and finally the final question burning in all your minds right now, where is and what happened to Tao?


	17. Warrior's Path III

Here's chapter seventeen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. As we all know, this is a very much anticipated chapter in the fact that Tao's final situation will be realized, but let's hold off on that until the end, and I would appreciate it of none of you skip to that part and read the whole thing to give you that feel of tension.

To recap on the duels the first duel between Mori and Kazuya has kicked into high gear. Kazuya is now left one card in his hand, two face-down cards, and no monsters, and is left with 1000 life points.

Mori is left with two cards in his hand, one monster Guardian of Dauntless Souls (1900/1200) and two face-down cards, and is left with 4100 life points.

Amun is currently dueling against a girl named Yukie, against his will mind you, and on the verge of unleashing more than we've seen before. Amun is left with two cards in his hand, a monster Egyptian Spirit Isis (1600/1000), one face-up spell card and one face-up trap card Curse of Tut, and Anubis' Scale, and 4000 life points.

Yukie is left with four cards in her hand, two monsters Mahou Shoujo Houka (1500/700) and Mahou Shoujo Denkou (2400/1000) under the effect of a trap card Matured Magic, and 4000 life points.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel XVII: Warrior's Path; Windragon Shiron v. Paladins and Egyptian Spirits v. Mahou Shoujo, Part 3<p>

"This probably means that Tao is already…" Amun started arranging the ruby attached to his wrist. "…Either losing his power over us, or he's dead."

"Don't say that, Amun!" Destiny yelled from behind him. "He still has about five months left before he's supposed to die! We can't just give up on him like that! If we don't trust in him, who will?"

"I never gave up on him," Amun reassured. "I'm just giving the current possibilities of his current situation. But unless he's already given up on the power we supposedly have, his death seems to be the more likely option."

"Do you have to act so depressive?" Trish asked from his left. "Do you ever think about anything, I don't know, happy?"

"Hey, giving that option that he's giving up _is_ my version of happy," Amun answered. "It means that I'm not automatically going to the worst possible scenario," he said with a fake smile.

Amun lowered his head as a stray rock hit him square on the cheek forcing him to look over at Yukie who still kept the pose from when she threw the stone. Yukie straightened her pose and placed her hands on her hips with an annoyed look on her face.

"Kids shouldn't make fake smiles!" she shouted pointing at Amun. "It's disgusting to look at. Kids your age that play this game should be more worried about whether or not they have fun and not how they rate their own version of happy and upbeat."

"Forgive me for being stuck in a pyramid for a few days and then almost committing suicide a few weeks after," Amun said hunching his back over. "Generally that tends to make one feel as though they can't really ever smile with sincerity ever again."

Dodging several other stones thrown by Yukie Amun kept his back hunched over and looking over at her with dying eyes and a similar fake smile, "If you're turn is done, I'd like to get on with this."

"Fine," Yukie growled as her monster summoned by the trap card Matured Magic disappeared returning to the extra deck. "At the end of the turn that Matured Magic is activated the monster summoned returns to the extra deck."

"Sounds like fun," Amun said drawing his card from the deck. "I sacrifice my monster Isis, to summon Egyptian Spirit Sobek (2400/1900) in attack mode!" he declared as the winged woman left the field in a harsh light and was replaced by another female figure but with a crocodilian head. "Now the effect of Curse of Tut activates placing another Curse Counter on it," Amun reminded as the second eye on the mummy case lit up this time a spectral white. "And with that I'll activate the ability of Sobek, I can send any face-down card on my side of the field to halve her attack and attack you directly."

The card behind Sobek disappeared and flowed into the woman's body as she charged past the young girl holding the staff who cringed as she went by with her jaw opened wide. Closing down on Yukie the Egyptian Spirit returned to the other side of the field while Yukie's life points dropped from 4000-2800.

"I end my turn," Amun said closing his eyes.

"Tell me how you're gonna cry now?" Yukie asked with her hands back on her hips.

"I can't help it," Amun said. "It comes naturally."

"Well, now you're gonna feel the hurt!" she declared drawing her card. "First I set one card face-down. Then, I summon Mahou Shoujo Unsei (1200/2100) in defense mode!" she shouted summoning a girl with black and red hair reaching down to her shoulders with the four card suits circling her staff. "Now I synch my Unsei (LV4 Tuner) and my Houka (LV4) to Synchro summon Mahou Shoujo Enkai (2600/2000, LV8) in attack mode!" she declared as the girl with the four card suits turning into four red and black rings that surrounded the first girl with red hair replacing both with a much more matured woman with an inviting appeal to her eyes with a short scepter that was serrated at one end. "Now attack, with Magic Slicer! And the added benefit is that when Enkai attacks you can't activate any effect and your monster is removed from play instead."

The girl blew a kiss to Amun and then shot out a vast array of serrated objects that attacked and destroyed Sobek forcing Amun's life points from 4000-3800. Yukie looked through the passing smoke when she saw two lights begin to shine at the hands of the mummy case in green and yellow.

"How did you do that?" Yukie asked out of disbelief when a large scarab beetle disappeared from the field in the same instant that the smoke cleared.

"Curse of Tut allows me to give up half of my life points to negate the effect of any monster that attacks an Egyptian Spirit and then send one from my deck to the graveyard that is level four or higher," Amun explained as his life points dropped from 3800-1900. "So I chose to send my Scarab from my deck to the graveyard when you attacked."

"So you mean…?" Yukie asked.

"Your plan to use Enkai's effect to keep the curse from taking place is futile, and has just made things all the easier, but before I take my turn, why do want to keep me from who I am?" Amun asked.

Looking up at the sky Yukie gave off her first warm smile since the duel began, "Because no person, especially a kid should have to live the life I lived for so long before I realized all that I missed by thinking that the only person I could ever talk to was me."

"What do you mean?" Amun asked.

"I grew up in a tough neighborhood," Yukie answered. "A neighborhood that only valued those who could duel. I could duel, but not well enough to be considered needed by others so I played by myself online. I continued to do so for four years, never leaving my room until it was time to eat or some other necessity. I never thought that I had to leave the privacy until I was told about something I had to stop.

"Girls, where I come from, aren't allowed to duel by any means because we can't understand anything about the game, according to the thick-headed guys around. A few girls heard that I could duel online and thought that I had the skills to stop them from pushing us around anymore. I thought, 'What are you all thinking? I couldn't duel for real if my life depended on it.' But then they asked me if I could duel against if someone else's life depended on it."

"What did that mean?" Locket asked clutching her chest.

"The resistance was led by my friends and the boys had defeated them and taken them hostage. If it were the 'me' that knew what I knew so far I would have run and never returned, but every time I took a step backwards I found myself going forwards instead. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't walk away from them and act like nothing was happening. All the while blaming myself, a kid of thirteen, for all this because I was too afraid to step out and see the world for what it really was.

"When I walked in front of the group of boys they ganged up on me and all summoned monsters one after another. But every time I told myself not to duel I pulled a card from my deck and played like never before. You could say I decimated the boys, but you could also say that I was running off of adrenaline, but I feel that sensation when I'm dueling someone who thinks that their problems are bigger than everyone's out there, or that they're better because of something that can't be control. Sometimes you just have to remind yourself that there's always someone worse off than you."

Amun looked down at the ground and then looked behind him to read the hieroglyphs and then up at the sky just as Yukie when the two both lowered their heads and faced each other with confident smiles.

"Beautiful speech, but it's my move!" Amun yelled drawing his card.

* * *

><p>"Tao can't be dead," Kazuya protested. "It just can't be he has five months to live before he turns seventeen, right?"<p>

"Since it's probably already done, it isn't worth the duel for the information, so I may as well just tell you," Mori offered.

"No!" Kazuya said ceasing Mori from speaking. "We had a deal and I will _earn_ that information, my move!" Kazuya shouted angrily drawing his card. "I summon Blue Flare Phoenix (1900/0) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a beautifully decorated blue phoenix with red beads and small red feathers streaking across. "I'll attack your guardian, Retribution Flare!"

The phoenix breathed a large blue flare out of its beak that collided with the guardian's sword destroying both. Kazuya's eyes began to lighten in hue to a colder and icier blue as he gave in to anger.

"Your move," Kazuya said as his voice began to grow hoarse.

"Fine!" Mori shouted drawing his card showing his rage in his eyes as Kazuya was also. "I summon Deneb, the Forever Knight (2000/500) in attack mode!" he said summoning a knight to the field with a star pattern on his breastplate and an unsheathed sword that shined at the bottom of the hilt in a blue-white light. "Now attack, Celestial Sword Style!"

"Now so fast," Kazuya shouted. "I play Whirlwind Deflection. This card negates your monster's attack, and destroys it inflict half of the monster's attack to you as damage!"

A giant whirlwind with large amounts of sharp debris swirled towards Deneb when Mori snapped his fingers.

"I play Crosscounter!" he shouted. "With this I can change the effect of a trap card to an effect that forces its user to remove from play a card in their graveyard, this duel is mine!"

"You wish, I play the trap card Frozen Blizzard!" Kazuya declared revealing his second face-down card. "With this by discarding a card from my hand I can negate the activation of a spell or trap card."

Kazuya held out one of his cards as Command Windragon-Shiron (2500/2000) and willingly put it in the graveyard negating Mori's card allowing the whirlwind to continue its assault. The knight was trapped by the wreckage and wind velocity and was destroyed after a few seconds dropping Mori's life points from 4100-3100.

Chuckling after his monster Mori held out his hand as a card shot out from his deck and fell in between his fingers.

"See whenever, Deneb should be destroyed I get the Forever Knight Albireo added to my hand," Mori explained.

"My move," Kazuya declared drawing his card. "I set a monster down in defense mode and end my turn."

"Hmm," Mori contemplated. _"He has no cards, he probably set that card down as a defense outpost to last him one more turn and just live off of top-decks for the rest of this duel until he gets something that can defeat me indefinitely, but for the past few turns he almost seems to be throwing his monsters into the graveyard. This reminds of something, something that Tao told me once. 'I won't pretend to be stronger than you Mori, but it only seems that way because I can read through strategies better than I can people. Take this for example; your opponent is seemingly throwing their monsters into their graveyard, this is a sign of two things; surrender but given the right person it's part of a more intricate summon.' I asked him what you would do in that case, he turned to me and said, 'I would let them go through the summon and then try my hardest to defeat what they tried to summon so diligently to show that I respected the effort they made to try win.'"_

"I summon from my hand Sadr, the Forever Knight (1900/1600) in attack mode!" he declared after drawing his card summoning a knight with a similar design to Deneb but with a yellow light shining at the top of the hilt of his sword. "Now I activate my face-down card Skyfury granting my monster 300 extra attack points. Attack, with Aerial Star-Tipped Blade!"

Jumping up the knight now with a new attack power of 2200, pierced the monster face-down showed to be a large falcon made entirely of rock screeched and was destroyed. The card in question, Stone Bird Falcon (0/2100), looked over at Kazuya who nodded. The falcon willingly went to the graveyard as a stray stone struck Kazuya in the gut dropping his life points from 1000-900.

"My knight also has the ability to inflict battle damage no matter the position of your monster," Mori explained as Kazuya began snickering in a hysterical fashion.

"You think that one bit of damage is enough to defeat me?" he asked as his eyes began to grow colder and lighter in hue yet again. "I'm just getting started, my draw!" he declared. "I summon another monster in defense mode and end my turn!"

"Fine," Mori said drawing another card from his deck and then summoning another from his hand. "I summon Albireo, the Forever Knight (1500/1600) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a knight with a double sided sword with a blue and yellow light shining at both ends. "Sadr, attack!" Mori commanded as the knight jumping employing the same technique as earlier piercing the monster revealed to be an aqua blue swan Kazuya knew as Sacred Lake Swan (1300/1600) dropping Kazuya's life points from 900-300.

Panting and holding onto his shoulder Kazuya could do nothing but smile as Mori hesitated in the final attack that would win the duel.

"_I could end this now,"_ he thought. _"But part of me knows that I shouldn't. Tao said that it shows a person respect to allow them to prove their full potential, but this may be my only chance to defeat him and move up to Tao, but if he is dead then there's no point."_

"I stand down; I'll simply lay a card face-down and end my turn!" Mori declared.

"Then it's my turn," Kazuya declared drawing his card making the only one in his hand. "I remove from play my Command Windragon-Shiron to summon Tornado King Shiron (3000/2700) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning another version of Shiron with six feathered wings and blue and red armor covering most of its body including its elongated neck. "Now attack, Regal Tornado Rage!"

Releasing a giant cyclone from its mouth Shiron flew backwards from the recoil of the tornado released. The blast of wind travelled towards Albireo and passed right by him and began to repeatedly strike Mori dropping his life points from 3100-1600. Gasping for air Mori looked up at Kazuya who stood with his arms folded across his chest.

"Albireo can survive an attack should he be destroyed by battle," Mori explained as Kazuya shrugged his shoulders. "Is this extent of your power?" he asked after a slight pause.

"What?" Kazuya asked confused.

"Is that dragon the extent of your power, or is there more?" Mori asked.

"_So I'm not the only one who's been told of the respect between duelists and the extent of power, huh?"_ Kazuya thought to himself. "…No," he answered.

"Then I won't defeat you this next turn, because I must know what you are inside," Mori said drawing his card. "I summon Tau, the Forever Knight (0/1800) in defense mode!" he declared summoning a red knight with a crimson red sword with a light shining halfway up the blade. "And with that, my turn is over."

"Then it's my move," Kazuya declared drawing his card. "I'll set one card face-down and attack your defense position monster!"

Using the same cyclone attack as before the dragon shot out the raging wind storm destroying the red knight. The light in the center of the former knight's sword began to react and then shine all of its light into Shiron's face. The light burned brighter and then harshly reacted to Shiron's eyes destroying it.

"When my Tau is destroyed I destroy the monster that destroyed it and inflict 500 points of damage to you…I win!" he declared as the light began to shine in Kazuya's eyes.

* * *

><p>"My move!" Amun shouted. "I summon Egyptian Spirit Ammit (1800100) in attack mode!" he declared summoning the beast crossed with a crocodile. "And now I activate the second effect of Anubis' Scale. When I have three or more Curse Counters anywhere on the field I can sacrifice my scale to summon Egyptian Spirit Anubis (2800/2000) straight to my field in attack mode!" he explained summoning one of his signature cards, the jackal-headed warrior with the curved scimitar in his hand. "And now by Ammit's effect I can automatically destroy one other monster on the field, destroy Enkai!"

The beast jumped from Anubis' side and chomped down on Enkai destroying it instantly in between its massive jaw line.

"Now, Anubis, attack with Judgment Break!" Amun declared as the jackal headed man ran towards Yukie who simply snapped her fingers revealing her trap card.

"I play Mirror Force which destroys all monsters you control in attack mode!" she explained as a giant mirror image of Anubis slashed at the original destroying it and the shattered pieces of the mirrored image also destroyed Ammit in a series of shrapnel pieces falling everywhere. "I assume it's my turn?"

"Exactly," Amun said as two more lights, one on each feet lit up in purple and blue. "Four more to go until I unleash my real power."

"Real power?" Locket asked. "I thought the extent of you was that Scarab."

"You'd think so, but this ruby and that Scarab is only half of my dueling," Amun explained. "The other side is inside that case…" he said with his voice beginning to lower in register.

"Anyway, my move!" Yukie declared. "I play the magic card Contract Calling! With this I can automatically add one Mahou Shoujo from my deck to my hand. And I think I'll choose this one," she said as one of her cards shot out of the deck and into her hand. "Now, I'll summon it, Mahou Shoujo Oto (2200/1100) in attack mode!" she declared summoning an adolescent girl with music notes as ear phones, and a microphone at the end of her scepter.

"How can you summon her if she's a level six?" Amun asked.

"I can special summon her to the field should I have equal to or less monsters than you, so I found a loophole!" he said with a slight giggle. "But now, it's over, attack with Resonating Rumble!"

The young girl spoke into her microphone as the sound waves traveled towards Amun at an alarming rate. Amun closed his eyes as though trying to shield them from something when he spoke three words.

"Trap…card…activate!" he called out as a large shield appeared in front of him. "This is the known as the Isis Barrier, by giving up Egyptian Spirits from my deck to the graveyard equal in level to a monster that is attack I can destroy it automatically, so I send six to destroy your pop idol."

The six monsters, all copies of other cards he had already played, turned into black stars that attacked Oto destroying her. As the six cards left the deck into the graveyard four other lights began to glow on the sides of the mummy case in orange, brown, gray, and red. The mummy case began to tremble as all the lights were lit.

"I end my turn," Yukie said with a growl.

"Then I have won," Amun said with his voice changing to a more snake-like tone. "I sacrifice the Curse of Tut spell card to summon from it, its final curse, and a horrible one at that might I add. I summon, Egyptian Spirit Apophis (2500/2500) in attack mode!" he called out as a giant serpent slithered out of the mummy case and hissed into the air. Looking down its back one would see ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs decorating it. "To the soul who is doomed by this spirit, I wish you the fullest, if not the most depressive life you will ever know," Amun said reciting the text. "I'm not like this by choice; I'm like this because…I'm cursed by this spirit.

"According to mythology, Apophis was an evil demon taking the form of a serpent and the sibling to Ra and Sobek. He supposedly had many battles fighting for leadership rights over the realm of the gods against his brother, Ra. He was defeated and even killed by the cat goddess who chased and hunted him with an all-seeing-eye.

"Apophis' ability gives it 500 extra attack points for every leftover Curse Counter left when it was summoned," he explained as the serpent's attack rose from 2500-3500. "Finish this!"

The snake pushed its body onto the ground and caused a small tremor that forced Yukie to the ground dropping her life points from 2800-0. The girls, especially Locket, applauded Amun who widened his eyes and clutched the area was his heart was and fell over in a heap. The last words he heard before blacking out were Locket's screaming, "Amun, are you okay?"

"_It's always like this," _Amun thought in his unconsciousness. _"Whenever I duel with either Apophis or Scarab I collapse. It does nothing to me, but since I don't know how to control my powers as the advent of the Scarab King. A man who exists only in legends, but found his way to reality. The man was able to control the beetles to do anything he wanted, but was tempted by the power Apophis offered him. Apophis promised him eternal life and power over the world if he free him from his grave. Unknowing of the consequences the greedy king took him up on that offer and released Apophis. Upon hearing this Ra and the other gods fought the king and Apophis who, with their newfound power, began to fight back and win against the god. Ra, however, had not joined the fight and instead brought forth the sunlight as he always had and when the sun reached the middle of the sky Apophis and the king's power disappeared as the Summer Solstice had arrived making their source of power, the night, less abundant making them less powerful. _

"_They were sealed away and were bound to only help the one who finds them and that's what they've done for me, but the crown of Ra is the only thing capable of freeing anyone from curses no matter what kind, but it only works on those who truly have a pure heart. _

"_Wherever you are Tao my only wish is that you are alive to make retributions for the mistakes you've made in your life thus far. Well, I guess I better get some sleep."_

* * *

><p>The light shined brighter as it travelled towards Kazuya who widened his eyes staring straight into it.<p>

"I play Shiron's Spirit!" Kazuya declared. "With this I can remove up to two wind monsters from my graveyard to gain 1500 life points for each monster removed. So I choose to remove Wind Saga Kazaki and Spiritual Windragon-Shiron to gain a total of 3000 life points."

The two figures returned to the field as transparent spirits that then turned into small bits of energy that travelled towards Kazuya juts seconds before the light hit him raising his life points from 300-3300. The light blasted Kazuya back several feet dropping his life points from 3300-2800. Kazuya gasped opening his eyes in the same instant and conceded the turn to Mori who drew his card with a confused look in his eyes.

"Why do you try so hard in everything you do?" he asked as Kazuya continued to pant.

"Because if there's even a one in a million chance Tao can be saved," Kazuya started. "I'd gladly give my life many times over, just so he doesn't in the same darkness that's he's been forced into ever since he was a small child. He's a friend who stood by me and was willing to get hurt for me, so how can I not repay him?"

"I see," Mori said drawing his card. "I sacrifice my two monsters to summon Cepheus, the Captain Knight (2500/2500) in attack mode!" he declared as the two knights on his field disappeared a black and white light and were replaced by a much more regal seeming knight with a shining light on the bottom of the hilt of his sword along with the top of the hilt, and the tip and middle of the blade. "For every Forever Knight in my graveyard my monster gains a knight; with one he cannot be destroyed by spell or trap cards, with two he can't be destroyed by a monster effect, with three he can't be destroyed by battle, and with four he can attack twice should he destroy a monster by battle. Cepheus attack, with Shining Beacon Slash!"

The knight silently raised his sword as it grew long enough to reach Kazuya. After one slash Kazuya was flung backwards again as his life points dropped from 2800-300. This time not cringing Kazuya simply stood up and looked at his deck.

"_At this point, the only way I can figure out anything about Tao is to draw it. But that card doesn't even listen to me. Tao gave it to me when we were attacked by Death Raptor he said it would protect me. Even after being slashed on the arm Tao brought its attention to him and made it follow. I hadn't seen Tao after, but I have to know what happened to him that day to the full extent," _Kazuya thought drawing his card. "This duel is over; I remove from play Tornado King Shiron, Espada Eagle, Sacred Lake Swan, Stone Bird Falcon, and Blue Flare Phoenix to summon Legendary Windragon-Shiron (4000/3500) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a blue and white dragon with a brown pilot's cap, eight feathered wings, and armor covering most if not the entire body; it's eyes were the same shade as Kazuya's and roared causing a small tremor in the duel arena. "Please help me Shiron! Help Tao!"

The dragon roared in Kazuya's face and looked at his cold eyes and almost seemed grin at him.

"Legendary Cyclone!" Kazuya commanded as the dragon began to breathe in between its hands and began to mass the wind in a large sphere. "Fire!" Kazuya ordered as the dragon shot the cyclone from its hands towards the knight.

The cyclone passed through the knight and began to attack Mori in his abdominal region. Grunting as it hit Mori's life points dropped from 1600-100.

"What was the point in that?" he asked grunting. "I still have life points, this duel is still on."

"Sorry, pal," Kazuya said as his dragon began to shine. "But so long as Legendary Windragon-Shiron is active on the field I can summon from anywhere a monster. From my deck I summon Eclipse Falcon (2700/2000) in attack mode!" he explained summoning the large falcon with the black and white face.

"How can you summon without your owls in the graveyard?" Mori asked looking at the falcon.

"Simple," Kazuya answered. "The power of my dragon is so mighty I can ignore the summoning conditions of a wind monster should I choose to summon one form my deck except another Shiron monster. Eclipse Falcon, finish this, Light and Shadow Break!"

Screeching at subsonic sound waves the falcon blasted the sound waves past the knight, or in this case through it, and attacked Mori dropping his life points from 100-0. Mori breathed out and sighed as he sat in the corner he was launched to as the monsters disappeared from the field. Mori looked up and saw Kazuya reaching out a hand to him which he accepted and pulled himself up. The corners of Mori lifted into a smile as he bowed to Kazuya in thanks.

"I'm sorry Kazuya," he said.

"For what?" Kazuya asked.

"Everything," Mori said. "I sent you a vague message; I disrespected your friend and mine at the same time, but more than all that I never told you the truth."

"What truth?" Kazuya asked.

"Tao has more than likely one more month to live," Mori answered as Kazuya looked at him in shock. "Every time his parents would use an amnesia mist Tao inhaled small amounts and forgot parts in his life, chief of them being the day he was born. He's been guessing at his birthday, but in reality it is in approximately one month, or more specifically, thirty days."

"You mean?" Kazuya asked.

"Tao will most likely die an unaware death," Mori replied. "And given we don't know his current location it will mean that his chances of survive are slim to none."

Kazuya looked out the door of the arena to find the ocean glistening in the sunlight. Hitting the wall Kazuya began to cry as he felt as though he never really would know…anything.

* * *

><p>Three weeks later.<p>

The lightning crashed in the biggest lightning storm in five years. In the Obelisk blue dorm Jason, Trish, and Mori were all asleep soundly in their rooms with a fourth room directly adjacent to them still with the lights on. The figure inside typed away at a laptop typing what seemed to be a fictional story when he looked out the window as the lightning flashed striking a rock on the island. In the flash the boy's physical features were shown as a normally physically fit boy with a black bowler cut reaching to his ears. Gripping onto a cup with his left hand and taking a sip the boy continued to watch the storm when he saw a person walking up the mountain towards the Obelisk Blue dorm.

Widening his hazel eyes the boy grabbed his duel disk and attached it to the right hand as opposed to the left and ran out of the dorm.

On the mountain path the boy looked back and forth and then turned around to find the figure on top of the Obelisk blue dorm. Running to the top of it as well the boy met him as the lightning flashed showing off a long brown coat, a full head of shaggy black hair and upon turning around a set of deep blue eyes.

"Who are you!" the shouted pointing with his left hand. "And give me a straight answer."

"Don't you think its common courtesy to give your own name first, Lance?" the figure asked still shaded by the passing shadows. "Lance Nye, an Obelisk Blue who did the impossible by coming from a modest background and then making it into the top of your class without lifting a finger in your first year. You have a profound interest in writing styles of science fiction and you cannot hold any belief if it is not set in stone."

"I've been a science geek all my life," Lance said. "It comes with the territory. But more importantly listening to your voice, looking at you height, hairstyle, eye dilation, and several other factors I don't need you to answer. You can dye you hair black, you can wear color contacts, but underneath it all it's still you Tao."

The figure began chuckling and looked into Lance's eyes. "You're mistaken."

"What?"

"Tao…is…dead," he said widening his eyes. "And I, his murderer!"

* * *

><p>Out on the open sea the rowboat Tao used to cross it was empty with splatters of blood on the beams, and the cards Tao used in his deck were thrown about off the edge.<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter seventeen complete. I guess I've gotten into this a bit too much I spent half the night working on this chapter and I finished about fourteen hours later. Time flies when you're having fun. Well now some mysteries are solved; Amun's current situation, Yukie's reasons for her actions, Kazuya's unwillingness to let anyone hurt Tao, Mori's past relationship with Tao as a friend, but is what this new enemy said true? Find out next time.<p>

Next time: A duel between two, almost rival forces, Lance Nye, an Obelisk Blue with something to prove, against a figure who gives the shocking if not expected news of Tao's demise. Next time: Logic against Belief; "?" v. Sci-Fi.


	18. Logic Against Belief I

Here's chapter eighteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. I apologize for those of you who almost fell in love with Tao and then delivering that kind of news. No one needs to commit suicide, don't take Amun's example. Please try to sit back and enjoy this chapter.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel XVIII: Logic Against Belief; "?" v. Sci-Fi, Part 1<p>

"Tao…is…dead," the figure said widening his eyes to angry hysteria. "And I, his murderer!"

"And you might be?" Lance asked. "You never did answer that question."

The figure kept his head down with the coat rustling in the wind of the storm, "Call me Crypt, the true soul for this vessel," he replied holding out his hands. "And the only soul that should have been for this vessel."

Lance stood in the rain and began to burst out laughing with the figure showing no emotion, "You can't be serious," he said through his laughter. "You expect me, a science major and the most logical thinking person in this institution, and I have proof to back that up, to believe that you're a reincarnation?"

"It's what I am," Crypt stated with the lightning flashing around him. "And if you doubt that, then let me prove it to you."

"How, pray tell?" Lance asked.

"In battle," Crypt said raising his arm activating a duel disk attached to his arm with a blade attached to the end.

"Why not?" Lance said activating his duel disk attached to his right arm as opposed to his left. "That's almost what I was expecting anyway so let's duel."

Crypt looked down at Lance and looked back up to his see his face, "Left handed aren't you?"

"You catch on fast," Lance said affirming Crypt's assumption. "Kaiba Corp. never serialized the duel disk for people who are left handed so we were stuck with the kind you throw like a yo-yo. So I began helping people who are left handed to have professional duel disks like anyone else. I found the mechanisms and found out a way to shift the positioning to make it face outward even when placing it on one's right hand."

"Inventive," crypt congratulated. "But now's not the time for that, duel!" he shouted as his life points meter stopped at 4000 along with Lance's. "You have the first move."

"Fine, I'll take it gladly," Lance said drawing his card. _"Hmm, I've been gathering Intel on the four Slifer Reds since this year began and Tao and Destiny are the ones I have the least on. I do know when he was twelve he underwent a legal name change to Tao but there was no record on his given name. Furthermore, he named himself Tao, more than likely after his deck style. If he's changed his name, or reverted it back to the name Crypt that can mean several things. If he was to use the same naming scheme he used when he was Tao then that means his new name means something as well in terms of his deck. Crypt is another term for the grave meaning that his deck is probably based on the styling of Black Magic, specifically Necromancy, or the magic property of reincarnation. If that's the case then I have to block as many passageways to the graveyard as possible," _Lance though while looking at his cards.

"Hmm, I summon Robot Warrior (1500/1200) in attack mode," he declared summon a cylindrical robot with short arms and legs with a cannon attached its left arm. "This monster falls into a subset of monsters called 'Space' making this what I like to call a Space-Warrior. Next I'll set a card face-down and end my turn. Go ahead, Crypt," he finished saying his name in a mocking tone of voice.

"You doubt my existence, don't you?" Crypt asked placing a gloved hand on his deck. "Well that stops now," he said lowering his voice register drawing his card from the deck. "So Lance, you don't believe in real monsters, do you? Well how about now, I summon Cryptid-Species Chupacabra (?/?) in attack mode," he said nonchalantly summoning a long legged creature with a coyote's face and a large, sharp row of teeth clouded in shadows covering his arm, leg and part of its face with a small claw charm hanging from its neck. "This is a card based on a creature found in Mexico and the lower part of the United States known as the Chupacabra. It's a ferocious beasts with a taste for livestock, some reports say that it sucks up its victim's blood and leaves them as dead heaps, mysteriously with nothing left inside."

"What's more interesting to me is the fact that it has no set amount of attack points," Lance said contemplating. "So how do these cards work?"

"The Cryptid-Species are a special breed of monsters," Crypt explained as the rain continued to pelt the ground. "The attack of any Cryptid-Species is based solely on the number of turns it remains on the field starting from the first end phase in which it was summoned. I'll play three cards face–down and end my turn."

The shadows surrounding the creature on Crypt's field reacted violently with the creature's eyes glowing red. The creature let out a mighty roar as its attack and defense rose from 0-500.

"Chupacabra's rate of growth is 500 per turn," Lance said to himself. "Well, that should be manageable, draw!" he declared looking at the cards in his hand. "I summon the Astro Warrior (1400/1200) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a man in a large helmet and a skin tight, gray suit. "Next, I'll attack with my Astro Warrior."

The human ran up to the creature and punched through it destroying it as the particles coming from it travelled past Crypt who clicked his fingers from within the gloves.

"I activate the trap card Cryptic Shield," he declared barely raising his voice. "So long as this card remains active I take no damage on a turn when a monster with less than 1000 attack is destroyed."

A large spherical shield appeared around him as the human's punch struck it leaving no dent or mark. Lance shrugged his shoulder and smiled setting down another card and ended his turn.

"My draw," Crypt said as a bolt of lightning struck down. "I summon Cryptid-Species Mongolian Death Worm (?/?) in attack mode," he said setting the card on his duel disk summoning a monster that burst out of the ground with a low pitch screech. The monster was a red worm with a large filled with a spiral of teeth with dripping drool that was yellow-green in color with parts of its long body covered in shadows and a similar claw charm around it's "neck". "His attack and defense rises by 700 with each passing turn, but right now it's to have some fun. When summoned the worm can destroy one warrior, or beast-warrior monster on the field."

The worm raised its mouth and shot out its drool that landed on the Astro Warrior destroying it in acid.

"Where'd the inspiration for that come from?" Lance asked.

"The Mongolian Death Worm," Crypt recited from memory keeping his eyes closed. "A large worm approximately 2 to 5 feet long found in the Gobi Desert. Said to be able to kill at a distance using a corrosive acid or through use of an electric discharge."

"Neat," Lance said sarcastically.

"But now, I attack with Mongolian Death Worm," Crypt declared with an unenthusiastic attitude. "Discharge Destroyer!"

The worm began shaking violent and then released a large discharge of electricity that traveled towards the robot sitting in wait on Lance's field.

"And the point for this is?" Lance asked. "Robot Warrior, deflect with Techno Blaster!"

A straight shot from the cannon on its arm as the Robot looked with no emotion at the disintegrating figure of the worm. Lance sighed with relief when he saw his robot began shaking violently in seemingly pain which was revealed to be the work of an all too familiar face. Lance looked with shock and awe as he saw the Chupacabra from before biting down on the neck of the robot destroying it and then disappearing.

"All right," Lance said disdainfully accepting the resulting. "What gives?"

"You should've known that the Chupacabra didn't come without a perk or two. I can remove another of my Cryptid-Species and it to destroy any one monster on the field, and thanks to Cryptic Shield I take no damage," Crypt explained as his life points remained stable at 4000. "I end my turn."

"Then it's my turn!" Lance declared pulling out another card from the deck. "I summon ET Warrior (1300/1300) in attack mode," he declared summoning an extra-terrestrial with two tentacles on each side of its body for arms, six underneath for legs, and a large eye for a head holding a ray gun. "Attack, with ET Ray!"

Firing the gun Crypt placed his hands over his face and took the brunt of the blow as his life points dropped from 4000-2700. Crypt then looked up from the ray and began chuckling and then allowed it to grow in volume and went into a full laughter with mad hysteria in his eyes. Lance looked at him and then at his monster who did the same.

"Did we forget to take our meds today?" Lance asked with a sarcastic smile.

"You don't understand, how could you?" Crypt asked as his voice turned hoarse. "I lived with no feeling of my own and after killing Tao I finally got it back, and it feels good."

"Okay, now you're scaring me," Lance said with wider eyes.

"Good," Crypt said. "My turn. I summon Cryptid-Species Sasquatch (?/?) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a large humanoid creature with hair all over its body, shadows covering its arms and legs, and a claw charm around its neck. "Unlike my other Cryptid-Species Sasquatch gains its attack and defense points during the main phase in 800 point increments. So be careful," he said as the large creature lifted up its arms as its attack and defense rose from 0-800. "Now I activate my face-down card, Stonehenge Transfixion!" he declared as a large stone appeared in front of Sasquatch. "With this I can make it so that Sasquatch gains an extra amount of attack and defense points equal to his growth rate."

The large beast punched through the stone as his attack and defense rose again from 800-1600.

"Now, attack with Pummel Fist!" Crypt declared with a hysteric look on his face.

The creature began running towards and then jumped up aiming for the alien who looked up with a surprised look on its eye.

"I activate the trap card Alien Slime!" Lance intercepted. "With this I can reduce your monster's attack by 1000 since its attack is over 1500."

A pile of acidic green slime flung towards Sasquatch attacking its eyes blinding him. Lance pumped his arm in victory but then looked back over at the monster who still was able punched through to his monster and destroyed it dropping his life points from 4000-3700. Looking with disbelief at Crypt's monster who simply wiped off the slime from its eyes and then cracked its neck and knuckles.

"The Sasquatch is a monster known by almost everyone as 'Bigfoot'," Crypt explained. "Being sighted in almost 48 of the 50 states in America and almost 300 times a year in California and Washington Bigfoot has been the subject of many media hypes, but none more so then when a gold miner, Albert Ostman, was supposedly kidnapped by a family and was taken to their cave where he stayed for several weeks in British Columbia in 1924. He could've been seen as their prisoner, but they never actually caused him any harm. He didn't escape until the creatures made the mistake of ingesting his snuff. This card is based on the idea that the Sasquatch has learned how to become to immune to traps such as that so no traps can affect my monster."

"Have you ever questioned these things?" Lance asked.

"No," Crypt replied. "It's my belief, one that I will take to my grave."

"Then let me make your trip shorter," Lance said drawing his card. "I activate the spell card Monster Reincarnation; with this I can discard one card to bring a monster card back from the graveyard into my hand, so I'll choose my Astro Warrior."

Discarding the card from his Lance pulled out his Astro Warrior from his hand and then snickered.

"Now I'll summon my Astro Warrior in attack mode!" Lance declared summoning the human again. "Now I activate my other face-down card, Radioactive Ooze! With this I can sacrifice my Astro Warrior to summon, Mutated Astro Warrior (2100/1800) in attack mode," he declared as a canister floated above and then broke in two and then poured a giant amount of slime onto the human which began to change his physiology enlarging his hands and popping veins in those areas of the body. "Now attack, Cosmic Fist!"

Swinging his fist the human barely moved his legs as the fist made the arm long enough to reach Sasquatch overpowering it and destroying it reducing Crypt's life points from 2700-2200. Reacting as thought nothing had happened Crypt turned his hysteric to face to Lance who cringed at the sight of it.

"Are you like some deranged psycho-killer?" Lance asked.

"Only to those who deserve it," Crypt said chuckling as Lance placed another card face-down and then conceding the turn to him. "My draw! Now it's time to begin your end," he said with his voice turning hoarser than before.

"How do you mean?" Lance asked.

"Do you know the story from an old churchyard in the small area of England of Mawnan? Two girls were walking throughout the woods when they saw a figure flying overhead with wings like a bird. Frightened by the sight they ran to their father who cut their vacation short, but managed to catch a glimpse of the creature from a picture his twelve-year old daughter drew. Another young girl claimed to have seen a similar creature hissing at her and a friend while camping in the area. This creature was said to have glowing red eyes, black pincer-like claws, and a face that would make anyone go white in fright. Have you ever heard of this?" Crypt asked.

"Sure," Lance replied. "I was there when I saw Tao duel Kazuya about a month into the semester and he talked about the same thing since it attacked him and gave him his second scar."

"What if I told you that the creature was talking about has two names?" Crypt asked leading Lance.

"From what Tao said it was called the…" Lance thought placing his hand on his chin.

"Death Raptor, or Owlman." Crypt finished.

"Yeah that's it," Lance widening his eyes in realization.

"A more lesser-known Cryptid the Death Raptor has only been sighted a couple times, but each time is described as a territorial, vicious, and pure evil beast. And yet I can control it, with a simple movement of the hand. I summon Cryptid-Species Death Raptor in attack mode!" Crypt called out placing his hand with a card in it above his head as a bolt of lightning flashed and struck the center of the battlefield.

* * *

><p>Chapter eighteen complete. Sorry, for leaving it another cliffhanger, but I think you'll find I do this a lot. For the record, because some of you have asked, I will be adding another arc after I have finished this one, but let me know your feedback on Crypt if you could, and all the other character; I'm always trying to get better.<p>

Next time: The duel between Lance Nye and Tao's murderer, Crypt kicks into high gear as Crypt summons the monster that supposedly attacked Tao when he was younger, but this time it is very real. Next time: Logic Against Belief; Cryptid-Species v. Sci-Fi, Part2


	19. Logic Against Belief II

Here's chapter nineteen of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. For those of you who have been asking questions I will not answer any questions regarding Crypt, Tao, or anyone to keep the mystery up and see if you can figure anything out.

To recap on the current duel a duelist claiming to be Tao's murderer named Crypt has challenged an Obelisk Blue student named Lance Nye who has been gaining Intel on the current inhabitants of the Slifer Red dorm. Crypt is currently left with 2200 life points three cards in his hand, no monster on the field…for the time being, one face-down card and one face-up trap card, Cryptic Shield.

Lance is currently left with 3700 life points, two cards in hand and one monster on the field, Mutated Astro Warrior.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

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><p>Duel XIX: Logic Against Belief; Cryptid-Species v. Sci-Fi, Part 2<p>

"I summon Cryptid-Species Death Raptor (?/?) in attack mode!" Crypt shouted as a stray bolt of lightning struck the middle of the battlefield. Crypt's eyes frenzied as the humanoid form of a creature covered with feathers, two large wings attached to its back, and long arms and legs with claws at the end of the hands and feet took the battlefield with a piercing screech.

"Isn't that a level seven monster?" Lance said able to see the card through the howling wind and pelting rain.

"It's simple, if I control no monsters and you control at least one with more than 2000 attack points I can automatically summon him to the field. Still don't believe in monsters?"

"Nope, because that's nothing but a hologram," Lance said confidently. "It causes nothing but artificial pain. Give me your best shot!"

"Then be prepared," Crypt said. "Death Raptor is one of four cards in my deck that have a stranger growth rate than the others. I take the up to three Cryptid-Species cards from my graveyard or my removed from play zone and then I add their growth rate together and that becomes Death Raptor's growth rate. So by returning Chupacabra, Sasquatch, and Mongolian Death Worm to my deck my growth rate for Death Raptor becomes 500+700+800 which totals up to 2000 every other standby phase."

"That is to say it has no attack points currently, right?" Lance observed.

"Exactly," Crypt replied. "I end."

"_Hmm,"_ Lance thought. _"He has one face-down card, one trap card that'll protect him so long as he has it, and a monster that has a growth rate of 2000 every two turns, but has no growth in between. He's too confident for it to be simple stupidity, it has to be that face-down. He's putting misguided faith into it, so let's take care of that," _he finished looking at his cards, _"It all goes into this draw then."_

"What if I were to tell you that this card will be the last card you battle from my deck?" Crypt asked in a challenging manner.

"I'd say you need stronger meds, or a powerful sedative. Draw!" Lance declared. _"Yes!" _he thought in success. "I sacrifice my Mutated Astro Warrior to summon Cruiser Captain (2100/1900) in attack mode!" he called out summoning a man with a gray military suit. "And thanks to him I can destroy that face-down card!" he declared as the man pulled out a pistol and shot it past the large creature and then destroyed the card directly behind him. "Now attack, Charge Shot!"

The man shot his pistol again with his hand behind his back and recoiled back as it fired a charged bullet towards the seemingly helpless creature. The Death Raptor screeched in a high pitched scream which stopped the bullet and made it fall to the ground. Lance widened his eyes as the monster charged the man and slashed through him with elongated claws. Lance watched as his Captain was slashed in half and then destroyed.

"You made him mad," Crypt said. "On the turn in which a card other than Death Raptor was destroyed by a monster effect and that monster then attacks him he negates the attack and then destroys the monster."

"Interesting," Lance commented. "I'm guessing this is all based on the idea that it's a territorial creature?"

"You would be correct in your assumption," Crypt said.

After a few seconds of silence Lance placed a card face-down leaving him with one card in hand.

"Hey, Lance," Crypt called out with his voice calming. "Have you ever heard of monster poisoning? It's a condition that is rarely seen and never talked about because it would reveal the existence of these creatures. It's caused when a creature like Death Raptor or the Mongolian Death Worm attacks but fails to kill its prey. The small bits of poison circulating within the veins of the creature is then extended to their means of attack or defense, the condition takes up to ten years to fully kill a person, but that time decreases by half every time you get attacked by another creature. Tao was attacked twice, he was going to die after five years by the Mothman scar the Death Raptor scar simply speeded up the process. In some cases people are shown to have deformities in their body, but in two cases this was shown through direct body changes."

"What do you mean?" Lance asked. "What do you mean _two_ cases? Is Tao one of them?"

"No…" Crypt said shaking his head. "…I am. The other is already at this school, and you've seen him, you've talked to him, and worst of all, you've trusted him."

"Who're you talking about?" Lance asked.

"Don't you think it's strange? You have a person here who has a double personality, a boy who spent three days locked in a pyramid and then became the most depressive person since, well I can't think of anyone more depressive, a girl who can barely remember her own past yet can always seem to look to the future," Crypt said as Lance began to look at him with widened eyes. "You also have a student who became possessed by his own heirloom, one student who practices black magic, and so many other people whose stories have yet to be told in entirety, but right now I'm only interested in your story. You came from a modest background, one where without any kind of recognition of what you could do, at thirteen you were offered fifty college scholarships, but none intrigued your more than the one that came from Duel Academy. Back then you didn't know how to duel, you gathered every bit of knowledge you could and then perfected a style that was all your own. Enrolling at Duel Academy you declined the scholarship with only these words, 'Nothing is more valuable than the feeling of when you do something knowing it was only you.' You scored highest on the test and then you beat the proctor within five turns overpowering, analyzing, and proving to the world that without logic one can't be a good duelist."

"That's me," Lance said shrugging his shoulders.

"But," Crypt said. "Despite all these awards, all these honors you never made friends with anyone, you never talked with anyone, and you repeatedly ticked off teachers by correcting them and then going as far as to taking over for the entire class period. The next day the teachers all tried to get you expelled, and when that didn't work they hired bounty hunters who cornered you and broke both your legs then leaving you for dead. Without anyone missing you, you stayed there for nearly six hours until you stood up and walked back to the academy with two broken legs, falling over a little more than a couple of hundred times. All that time saying one thing, 'Nothing is more valuable than the feeling of when you do something knowing it was only you.' After being treated and subjected to surgery you stopped your rants against teachers who repeatedly made mistakes, until one day. You told yourself that you are who you are and that meant that no one should be able to take that away from you."

"What's your point?" Lance asked.

"You say you don't believe what's not written in stone, but you walked back to an academy two miles away on two broken legs, you showed mercy in that you never brought the teachers to light who hired those thugs, but you've also done one more thing that makes me and you more alike than you'll ever know; you held to your belief," Crypt said.

"How do you know this?" Lance said referring to the information Crypt revealed about everyone.

"I've always known about you people, because I've met you all. That's how I know about Tao, and that's how I knew how to kill him! My move!" he declared drawing his card as the creature in front of him screeched as its attack and defense rose from 0-2000. "I activate the trap card in the graveyard Deadly Discovery!" he declared as a trap card flew out of the graveyard. "This card is only activated on the standby phase of the turn after it was destroyed, with it I can draw one card, if it's a Cryptid I remove it from play and then add attack points equal to its growth rate to any one monster I choose and then that power is added to the monster's current growth rate."

"What?" Lance exclaimed.

"And the lucky card is, Cryptid-Species Yeti (?/?)! This card has a growth rate of 900 every turn, so that's now added to Death Raptor," Crypt explained as his monster screeched again with its attack growing from 2000-2900. "The added benefit for you, I only gain these attack point every other turn. Death Raptor, ATTACK!" he shouted as his monster charged Lance slashing at his mid section which made Lance cry out in pain with his life points dropping from 3700-800.

Gasping for breath Lance stood up slowly and met with Death Raptor's eyes who screeched at him. Swinging a fist Lance gritted his teeth as the fist went right through the monster who simply flew back to Crypt's side of the field.

"Who're you looking for?" Lance asked with his head down far enough so you couldn't see his eyes.

"What?" Crypt asked.

"Are you looking for someone here?" Lance asked again.

"As a matter of a fact, yes," Crypt said.

"It's Destiny, isn't it?" Lance said bringing his head up. "You're almost exactly like Tao, you don't know when to quit, but as long as I'm alive, you won't touch anyone in this institution."

"Why are you protecting them?" Crypt asked.

"I'm the manager of the blue dorm, when the dorm head finds he is unable to complete his duties, I take it upon myself to do them. I have to interact with everyone, I have to make sure everyone's fine, but more than all that, I have to protect them against people like you who think that I'm just gonna stand-by and let the same thing that happened to my legs happen to anyone else," Lance said bringing his duel disk to a ready position. "Draw!" he declared. "I summon a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"Bring it on!" Crypt said drawing his card. "Death Raptor, attack!" he declared as the monster slashed through the card Lance had just summoned revealing it to be a small red lizard with a yellow underbelly and a long tongue.

"Meet the Alien Amphibian (500/500) when destroyed by battle your monster cannot attack for five turns," Lance said clutching his abdomen.

"You'll regret this," Crypt said ending his turn.

"My turn!" Lance declared. "I play another Alien Amphibian in attack mode and end my turn."

"My move!" he declared as Death Raptor's attack rose from 2900-5800, and its defense from 2000-4000. "I end," Crypt said disdainfully. "All it will take is four turns, until you die."

"Good one," Lance said. "Maybe you should try going into stand-up comedy. Draw! I sacrifice my Alien Amphibian to summon Alien Warlord (2000/1800) in attack mode!" he shouted summoning a large humanoid alien with black armor, a large mouth lined with sharp teeth, and a long black sword. "Then I place a face-down card and end my turn."

"_This may not work in the end, but I have to try, for everyone's sake,"_ Lance thought coughing from the pain in his stomach. _"I didn't know the safeguards could be taken off like that to the point of a need for the ambulance without the Egyptian God cards or something akin to them."_

Crypt looked at him and then held his head, "What are they to you? They can't be friends."

"You're right," Lance said. "They're not my friends, but they are above all, my responsibility, my comrades, and my rivals. What about you? How did you kill Tao, that guy wasn't exactly the kind to go quietly."

"I killed him after beating him in a duel," Crypt answered. "I don't know if you've noticed but the pain you feel is real, and when you're life points hit zero you go into a comatose like state after entering the Shadow Realm. Originally it was only accessible by the use of seven mystic items, but now I can open that portal. Hope you're not afraid of the dark."

"I don't believe you," Lance said confidently. "I can't believe in something like that, it defies who I am, but I will believe one thing; you're nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer and Tao deserves justice, as long as someone as a life to live, no man has the right to take that away. Keep that in mind."

"My move!" Crypt shouted drawing his card. "I play the card Cryptic Blessing!" he declared activating a card from his hand. "With this I can force you to summon all monsters in your deck that have less than 1000 attack points."

"Fine by me," Lance said summoning a third Alien Amphibian from his deck and then a different monster with a reptilian body, feathered wings, and a small head resembling an anemone in triplicate. "Meet the Alien Avian (900/900). And since I control a dark monster I equip all three to Alien Warlord and he gains all their attack points," he explained as his Alien Warlord gained three sets of wings along with 2700 attack points raising his power from 2000-4700.

"It's still not enough, I guess," Lance chuckled.

"I end my turn with a face-down card," Crypt said.

"Then allow me to end this duel," Lance said drawing one more card. _"Perfect!"_ he thought in success. "I activate my face-down cards, Brightest Day and Blackest Night," he declared revealing his two face-down cards. "Brightest Day gives an extra 1000 attack points to any light monster I control while Blackest Night does the same but for dark monsters I control," he explained as his alien's attack points rose from 4700-5700.

"Close, but no cigar," Crypt said confidently.

"First, I detach my Aliens from the Warlord," Lance said as the three winged aliens took the field in defense with the warlord losing attack points from 5700-3000. "Next I play the spell card Shadow of Eclipse!" he declared as the field began to darken with a ring of light around them. "I can only play this when I have Brightest Day and Blackest Night, for the next three turns your monster's attack is cut in half!"

"What!" Crypt exclaimed as he watched his monster's power weaken to 2900.

"Next is the end, I activate the Warlord's effect, I can sacrifice a monster to give him an extra 1000 attack points!" he explained as his amphibian disappeared and his monsters attack rose from 3000-4000.

"What's your point?" Crypt asked. "The monster's still too weak."

"Not if I reattach them," Lance said as the three avian attached back onto the warlord raising its attack from 4000-6700. "Now attack and get Tao's revenge, Dominating Slash!"

The warlord slashed through Death Raptor and then through Crypt who barely moved after being hit. Lance then looked at the scene in surprise when he felt a large sting in his stomach. Looking up a large spirit form of Death Raptor was stabbing him with the sword held by the warlord as his life points dropped from 800-0.

"My cards don't lose, they fight even after death, and so do I," Crypt said staring at Lance. "By the effect of Hunter's Mistake any damage done to me in battle involving a Cryptid is automatically transferred at the cost of half the growth rate of Death Raptor," he said as his life points dropped from 2200-250. "You lose," Crypt said.

"One thing I have to see," Lance said. "You said you were attacked, what deformity do you live with now? And how long do you have?"

Taking off his gloves crypt revealed sharp claws much like the ones on Death Raptor and then lifted his lip to show a row of sharp teeth much like the Chupacabra.

"I'm seven years overdue," Crypt said. "Now it's your turn to experience pain and feel helpless…all over again," he said placing his hand over Lance's face.

Chanting several words Lance screamed in what seemed like fear as he fainted into a state of comatose.

"Who's next on my list?" he asked himself before walking off into the night leaving Lance in his state in the bone chilling rain and destructive lightning.

* * *

><p>Chapter nineteen complete. Talk about weird, and I'm writing this, I hope you people realize that half of this I make up on the fly.<p>

Next time: Lance is down, who's up next, how about the one person who has as much to prove as anyone. Having met Crypt in the past it'll be a duel against old enemies. Next time: Crusade of the Academy; Cosmos v. Cryptid-Species.


	20. Crusade of the Academy I

Here's chapter twenty of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. Finally, broke twenty chapters, epic win! Last time we met probably the main villain, Crypt. Now that he is here will things undoubtedly get worse for Destiny and the rest, and what is Crypt's real goal in all of this?

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM.**

* * *

><p>Duel XX: Crusade of the Academy; Cosmos v. Cryptid-Species, Part 1<p>

"BEEP…BEEP…BEEP," the monitor sounded as it had been attached to Lance's weakened body.

Still in a coma from his duel with Crypt Lance was found on the roof of the academy after a maintenance worker found him still unconscious. After rushing him to the hospital the doctors concluded that he had been put under a large amount of force and stress causing this _temporary_ form of seizure and coma. The people in the waiting room of the hospital, most of the Obelisk Blue students in the same area of the dorm as him including Jason, Trish, and Mori, all waited anxiously for the doctor's results as they were given.

"I don't think there's anything to worry about," he said much to their relief. "But if he is put under more stress he will die from cardiac arrest."

Snapping Jason grabbed the doctor by the coat collar and began losing his cool. "You don't know what you're talking about, idiot. Lance was the most calm person in the dorm. He didn't know the meaning of the word 'stress.' So stop lying and tell us what's wrong!"

"Jason!" Trish shouted as he put the doctor down.

"I want the truth," Jason said. "After what Lance did for all of us, we need to make sure any sacrifice he made was not in vain. And this crackpot isn't giving us anything but the trash that every corrupted doctor gives us."

Sighing depressively the doctor rubbed his eyes with his fingers and then sat down. "Fine, Jason, you win," he said turning everyone's head. "Lance was placed under this kind of stress through dueling with someone who removed any kind of safeguards off of his duel disk. The first thing I checked for was internal bleeding. I used to work for KaibaCorp and saw this kind of thing all the time, but they woke up from it with minor concussions, so I didn't want to worry you anymore than I had. Forgive me."

Walking out of the doctor's office with rage taking over his mind Jason hit the wall beside when Mori and Trish joined him and the three of the nodded in agreement.

* * *

><p>Later that night the lightning continued its ruthless attack on the world below it and almost followed Jason, Trish, and Mori as they walked throughout the forest. Searching for several hours through bushes and climbing trees the three regrouped but never seemed to tire from the search but began to get even more motivated. The three walked out of the forest to regroup when a mysterious figure in front of them in a long brown overcoat looked at them with an evil grin.<p>

"I take it you're looking for me?" the figure said.

"Who are you!" Mori shouted asking through the lightning which then illuminated the figure's face. "Tao?"

"No," the figure replied walking into view. "I am Crypt, Tao's and now Lance's murderer. And after tonight, yours."

"Fat chance!" Jason said activating his duel disk as the two behind did in kind.

"Three to one odds," Crypt observed. "Interesting…"

Activating his duel disk Crypt shouted through the night and lightning. As the storm raged on a shadow-clad monster similar to his cards used against Lance Crypt commanded it to attack for what he called a "final time." A large roar was heard and Jason fell to the ground on his knees as Mori and Trish had already done with almost no strength left.

"…Pathetic," Crypt said placing his hands over the three of them. "You're turn…"

Chanting the same words he did after defeating Lance and finished shortly after when the three fell unconscious on the spot with Jason muttering a few words as he fell.

"…You…won't…get…away…with…i-" he said before falling receiving no reaction from Crypt who simply turned away and sneered into the night with the monster behind him disappearing into a shower of light.

* * *

><p>The next day the doctor examined the three kids and gave the same results that were given for Lance's results. Destiny, Locket, Amun, Rose, Fate, Yukie, Gaia, and Kazuya were among the students who met with the doctor. The doctor sighed and looked at their depressed faces upon hearing the news.<p>

"Is it true that this was caused by dueling?" Amun asked.

"Yes," the doctor said looking at his test results. "Why do you want to know?"

Standing up from his spot Amun bolted from the hospital and out to the main academy city. From there Amun was followed by the other students to the red dorm when he walked in and locked his door behind him shutting them out.

"Locket?" Destiny said holding out her hand.

Locket shuffled through her bag and pulled out a master key set to the dorms and handed them to Destiny who casually searched through the keys until she stopped at one labeled, "Amun." Fitting the key inside destiny the key but found it stuck and then banging on the door.

"Changed my locks last night!" Amun called out from inside the dorm.

"Then we'll break down the door!" Gaia said.

"Be my guest!" Amun shouted. "But do you think you would afford to? That's hand-carved mahogany, the good stuff; they don't make this stuff anymore. Not to mention I reinforced it," he said as he heard a thud from the other side he assumed was Gaia.

"…I'm gonna kill that kid," Gaia said as a small note was shuffled underneath the door.

Upon reading Gaia popped a vein in his forehead, "Not funny!"

The note became visible to the others when they fell over on a leg. The note read, _"If you're going to kill me can I request the following methods; Cyanide poisoning, flash freezing, gunshot to heart, or any other form of instantaneous or painless death. ~Amun"_

"A real comic genius, huh?" Kazuya said sarcastically when the door handle jiggled and opened to reveal Amun with a paper in his hand.

"Okay, what gives Amun?" Rose asked with her arms crossed.

"The doctor said that all four cases so far have been caused by sudden shock seizures from dueling, right?" he asked rhetorically. "Well, for centuries to millennia people have experienced similar symptoms after entering a supernatural situation called a Shadow Game; a game in which your very soul is put on the line. Assuming that the people who have been put into comatose states were dueling then we can also assume that the perpetrator has the power of the Shadow Games at his disposal. We can't stay here."

"What!" Yukie exclaimed.

"This person can almost destroy a person's soul," Amun warned. "We have to evacuate the academy. I'll explain to the Chancellor, you guys relay this news to everyone who hasn't been personally affected by this, including teachers."

"But Amun," Locket started.

"I'm sorry, Locket, but there isn't any other way," he said running to the main school building.

"He's right, Locket," Destiny said placing her hand on her shoulder. "Let's go."

* * *

><p>Later the same night a series of boats arrived and students boarded in a mass panic after hearing the truth of the attacks. The only who had yet to board were the people who delivered all the news about the severity of the situation. Rose began to move up onto the runway when Amun ran up and pulled her off.<p>

"What gives?" Rose asked angrily when a random bolt of lightning passed by them and destroyed the runway.

In a panic the boats left leaving the eight of them behind. Amun panted looked back at the academy. Sighing disappointed by the situation Amun walked back to his dorm room and left the door allowing the other seven to come in.

"This wasn't some random occurrence," he said sitting down in front of the rest of them. "Whoever did this wants to keep us here isolated from the rest of the world."

"Why us?" Fate asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

"My guess is that it has to do with Tao," Kazuya said sitting back in his seat. "Tao knew all of us somehow, whether it was on a separation degree or a direct relationship. Think about it, if someone was after Tao wouldn't holding a few hostages be a good way to do it."

"What do you mean hostages?" Destiny asked.

"It's simple," Gaia said. "When you lose a Shadow Game you don't die, but you experience it to a point where you wish you were dead. But by defeating the Shadow duelist you can bring back all the people affected by the shadow game."

"So our only option is to defeat this perp, huh?" Yukie asked.

"Yes and no," Amun said. "Until we know anything about our enemy we shouldn't do anything rash to the point where any one of us could be next."

"…What if it were me to go?" an old voice asked.

"Ninomiya?" Destiny observed. "Why aren't you on the boat to get the heck out of here?"

"And leave you noble students behind? No way!" he answered. "As I said; if you need someone to sacrifice let it be me. I need to protect Tao."

"We can't ask that of you," Yukie said.

"She's right," Rose agreed.

"I wasn't negotiating it. See you on the other side," he said leaving the dorm into the forest.

The eight stayed silent when Destiny broke down and screamed out of frustration.

"Keep calm, Destiny," Amun said focusing on a point on the ground.

"How can I keep clam when our teacher is risking his life for us?" Destiny asked approaching the door which slammed shut in front of her.

Turning around the face Amun whose eyes were dripping tears at a slow rate. Looking up at Destiny Amun stood up and took a small notebook and began writing.

"As long as we're stuck here with no backup support we're gonna have to sustain ourselves," he said looking up from notebook. "Given how things are now we should always be in pairs that way no one goes in alone. I've chosen the groups based on how I think they'll operate well with each other," he said showing them the book.

Destiny read off the names of the people and who they were paired with, "Okay, Rose is with me, Yukie's with Fate, Kazuya's with Locket, and Gaia's with Amun."

"Also," Amun noted. "At night we'll stay in two of the blue dorms. It'll have to be a connected room to have quick access to each other. No co-ed rooms, got it?" he asked looking up at the group with cold eyes. "Yukie, which of the conjoined rooms is closest to the master key set?"

"I can think of one," Yukie said leading the group out of the dorm.

* * *

><p>As the sun set Amun looked out the window and into the forest with a depressive look on his face as he turned to help the others make up their futons. As the day turned to night completely Gaia stayed outside staring into the black scenery when he heard a large shout. Shaking out of supposed fear Gaia left the spot in front of the doors and deeper into the dorms. Reaching the waiting area of the dorms Gaia stayed out of sight when he saw an elderly figure in the forest falling to his knees.<p>

Widening his eyes in realization Gaia left the dorm and ran to the forest his path only lit by the moon and stars. Panting as he ran in multiple as the figure left the scene and the elderly man in the night Gaia found the old man as Ninomiya, but with a peaceful expression on his face. Screaming in frustration Gaia ran towards the figure and tackled him and punched his face.

"Good to see you too," the figure said with a hysteric voice.

"…Crypt," Gaia said in contempt. "Why now do you choose to show up after almost ten years?"

"To finish what I started," Crypt said activating his duel disk with the blade almost cutting through the night.

"Fine by me, but now you'll really die," Gaia declared. "And finally end my grief."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that," Crypt replied. "My move, draw! I summon Cryptid-Species Kraken (?/?) in attack mode!" he declared as a large pool of water appeared below him and a large monstrous squid with a claw necklace rose from it almost snarling at Gaia. "You of all people should know how my deck works; every end phase my monster gains a certain amount of attack and defense points determined by its growth rate specified on the card itself."

"And if I remember correctly that card has a growth rate of 600 every turn," Gaia said by memory.

"Aegis serves you well," Crypt remarked. "Yes, the Kraken gains 600 attack and defense every turn it remains on the field. The monster that truly was…" Crypt said solemnly.

"True," Gaia said. "Supposedly in Scandinavia this monster would attack ships as they would come to meet their doom by the tentacles this monster would lash at them. But that monster has a hidden effect that doesn't frighten me in the slightest."

"Aegis' memory is a good one," Crypt complimented. "Yes, so long as Kraken remains on the field all Cryptid-Species monsters gain attack points equal to their growth rate during the battle phase. I set two cards face-down and end my turn," he declared as the shadows underneath the large squid engulfed it for several seconds raising its attack and defense from 0-600.

"Then it's my move!" Gaia declared drawing a card. "I summon DFF-II Firion (1600/800) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a warrior with black and blue armor, a blue cape, and silver hair covered by a blue, orange and white bandana. "Next I attack your overgrown piece of calamari, Straightarrow!" he ordered as the warrior lined an arrow at the Kraken and fired. "Now I role a die and then my monster gains attack equal to the roll times 100," he explained throwing a die from his pocket onto the field.

The die spun on its corner and landed on a four making the arrow fly faster as the power grew from 1600-2000 piercing the squid and destroying it. The arrow continued flying and struck Crypt reducing his life points from 4000-2600. Crypt chuckled as he snapped his fingers revealing one of his two face-downs.

"I activate the trap card Bermuda Triangle!" he declared as a large open space appeared beneath both his and Gaia's feet, neither of them making a movement or look of surprise. "Perhaps you will explain it to me, my memory isn't as good as _yours_."

"Bermuda Triangle is a continuous trap card that allows the player to send up to two Cryptid-Species from their deck to the graveyard every time another is destroyed on the field. After sending the two the monster that attacked is destroyed, no questions asked and the monster sent to the graveyard with the lesser of the two growth rates deals damage to me equal to that growth rate," Gaia recited. "Well, how'd I do?"

"Much better than I expected," Crypt said shuffling through his deck and then picking out two random cards. "I send my Cryptid-Species Chupacabra and my Cryptid-Species Ogopogo to the graveyard. Chupacabra has a growth rate of 500 and Ogopogo has a growth rate of 1000. So I guess you'll have to settle for the 500, sorry for the inconvenience."

"Don't be," Gaia said as a serpentine monster shot from the card called Ogopogo and chomped down on his monster who simply made a defensive stance in the spell and trap card zone. "Keep in mind that any DFF monster sent to the graveyard can be placed in the spell and trap card zone instead."

"But that won't save you from this," Crypt said as the beastly figure of his monster lashed at Gaia reducing his life points from 4000-3500. "Does that end your turn?" Crypt asked.

"It does," Gaia said after placing two face-down cards. "I can ensure you that you will fall today whether it is by my own or by another's hand."

"Then I draw!" Crypt shouted as he snickered manically and then into a full-on laughing fit holding the card he drew in his hand. "I activate the ability of Ogopogo in the graveyard; I can change its attribute to any I choose from the cards in my hand, and by selecting my Mongolian Death Worm he becomes an earth attribute in the graveyard."

"_Hmm, why waste playing an ability like that?" _Gaia contemplated. _"If it were Aegis dueling he would've figured this out, but the little sneak has withheld information I need should I ever have to face him again and what he did to me. He has the Bermuda Triangle trap card out which is almost specified to bring out a certain Cryptid, albeit not one that's relatively close to the area. From the limited information that Aegis has been willing to share with me I know that there are three different cards running around in Crypt's deck that are based around three ideals, reversals, tricks, and finally overall destruction, but he would never tell me which one was which."_

"Since I have exactly three Cryptid-Species monsters in my graveyard and they all have different attributes I am allowed to summon this level eight monster with no charge to me," Crypt explained breaking Gaia's train of thought. "Let me tell you a story; a man swimming in a river many centuries ago was attacked by a vicious monster that was stopped by the man known as St. Columba. Since then it has been reportedly sighted many times over, most famously in what we know as the 'Surgeon's Photo' taken in 1934 when a young surgeon pictured it as it arose from the water. Gaia Cehack, and if you're watching us Aegis Cehack, I introduce you to Cryptid-Species Niseag (?/?) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a large monster appearing out of a pool of water underneath it. The creature had a long neck and a large body that seemed to be a large hump and gnashing teeth that stared Gaia in the face.

"'Niseag?'" Gaia asked almost mocking the name.

"It's Irish Gaelic for a monster that is known to live in the waters of Loch Ness, otherwise known as Nessie. Niseag just sounds more threatening than the aforementioned name," Crypt explained looking a bit angry. "But if you insist on making a fool of it try this on for size, Niseag's growth rate is equal to the combined growth of **all** Cryptid-Species in my graveyard giving him a total of 2000 points every turn, and the best part is his growth is during the battle phase, attack Ancient Fury!"

The monster reared its head back and shot a continuous stream of murky water towards Gaia who looked at it head-on.

"_This better work, for all our sakes,"_ Gaia thought closing his eyes waiting for the attack to connect.

* * *

><p>Chapter twenty complete. Well, how do you guys like my little cliffhanger bit? Please don't kill me. And I'm sorry for the late update but I've been otherwise engaged. Until next time, ja nee.<p>

Next time: Gaia's duel with Crypt takes a turn for the strange and weird as Crypt and Gaia continually talk about a past unknown to most other people, but what if that same past was unknown to even the one their talking about. Next time: Crusade of the Academy; Cosmos v. Cryptid-Species, part 2.


	21. Crusade of the Academy II

Here's chapter twenty one of my Yu-Gi-Oh GX fanfic. As you all remember last time after Lance fell to Crypt Jason, Mori, and Trish all took it upon themselves to find the culprit and make him answer for his crimes only to be defeated by Crypt himself. Then after being isolated by Crypt on the academy island Destiny, Amun, Locket, Gaia, Kazuya, Rose, Fate, Yukie, and Ninomiya began to form a resistance against him until Gaia finds Ninomiya in a similar state as the others and begins a duel with Crypt but seems to have more knowledge of his deck than the others, but will it help him now.

Crypt is left with 2600 life points, three card in hand, one card face-down, a face-up trap card Bermuda Triangle, and one monster, Cryptid-Species Niseag (currently 2000/2000), on the field about to take a bite out of Gaia.

Gaia is left with 3500 life points, three card in hand, no monsters on the field, and two cards face-down.

**DISCLAIMER: ALL THE CREDIT FOR YU-GI-OH GOES TO KAZUKI TAKAHASHI AND SHONEN JUMP. I OWN ONLY SOME OF THE OCs AND THE DECKS USED BY THEM. **

* * *

><p>Duel XXI: Crusade of the Academy; Cosmos v. Cryptid-Species, Part 2<p>

"Ancient Fury!" Crypt shouted out as the monster reared its head back and thrust it forward releasing a large burst of water that traveled towards Gaia at break-neck speed.

"_This better work…for all our sakes,"_ Gaia thought while closing his eyes bracing himself for impact and then opening them only a second later. "I play Mirror Force!" he declared as a large mirrored barrier surrounded. "With this all your monsters in attack mode are destroyed no questions asked."

Snickering Crypt simply looked at his monster as it continued releasing the water which hit the shield and began to lose power. Gaia sighed with relief but then heard a small cracking sound. Looking up at the spot where the barrier was being attacked Gaia found a small cracks massing where the water was battering the shield eventually destroying it and then blasting Gaia with the tons of water being poured out against him reducing his life points from 3500-1500.

"Niseag is too elegant to be stopped by your meaningless defense," Crypt explained. "It cannot be destroyed or affected by spell or trap cards in any way, shape or form. Guess you better start thinking of something else."

"Shut-up," Gaia said drawing his card. "I summon DFF-VII Cloud (1900/1200) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a young warrior with blond hair, an indigo outfit, a metal shoulder brace, a brown belt with a large symbol on it, brown boots, and a large broadsword he held behind his back. "And once per turn, I get to destroy one of your spell or trap cards, do your stuff."

Running past the monster the warrior brought his sword in front of him and slashed the card manifestation of the Bermuda Triangle dispelling the field below the two of them. Gaia sighed with relief and placed another face-down card ending his turn.

"My move," Crypt said chuckling dangling the card in between his index and middle finger. "I summon the Cryptid-Species Bayer Road Beast (?/?) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a large bipedal wolf with its fangs dripping with drool, scratches in multiple parts of its body and the same claw charm around its neck. "My ever-faithful doggy has a growth of 1500 every end phase at the cost of one of my monsters from my hand during the end phase or else he gets nothing. With that I'll end my turn giving my Niseag no gain and now the cost must be paid for Bayer Road Beast," Crypt reminded dropping the Mongolian Death Worm into the graveyard. "And with that, next turn my Niseag will gain an extra 2700 next time I attack, putting you closer to your headstone."

"Why?" Gaia asked. "Why are you back? Why do you have to cause me grief? It's been ten years since I've seen you and here you are trying to kill of an entire academy just for some stupid magic power."

"Exactly," Crypt said. "There's a reason I've isolated all of you here; each of you has your own magic, some more prominent than others. In order for me to complete my ambition I must have all of your magic."

Gaia stood still and looked back up at Crypt with the most enraged look he had ever had, "People aren't mere pawns!" he shouted. "And you're trying to kill us for something that won't work!"

"How naïve," Crypt said. "Destiny is the final key; she is descended from a woman whose predictions were 99% correct until she was murdered for her power. Destiny may not know this yet, but in order for anyone to be healed of this poison they have to use the power of the Celestial Queen whose spirit inhabits Destiny."

"Celestial Queen?"

"Exactly," Crypt said in agreement. "A figure that is said to be able to amplify any power that a person holds. How is it that Destiny is able to figure out complex maneuvers that her opponents use sometimes before they even use them allowing her to prepare a defense for said tactic. This queen, however, comes with a price, you must make a necessary sacrifice. She can only enter the lives of people who have experienced the ultimate loss."

"Loss of loved ones," Gaia remarked with Crypt chuckling.

"Precisely," Crypt said. "Destiny is the last person alive in her entire extended family; mother, father, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, in-laws, any kind of family you can think of she's lost. This makes her power all the more potent, and obvious. She can only lose by her own choice."

"That's where you're wrong, I've defeated Destiny and she went into shock afterwards," Gaia said defensively.

"Oh if only that were true," Crypt said. "At first it only seems as though a larger spirit is required for her power to manifest, but upon closer examination of the facts she could've won all those duels, but chose not to."

"E-even if that were true how would you beat her?" Gaia asked.

"Simple," Crypt started chuckling. "I give her the choice between her or her friends. The queen is nothing, if not gracious, and selfless. She'll gladly give her life many times over to save her friends even if that means letting me live, and giving up her power."

"Not as long as there are people willing to protect her," Gaia said. "Like me! Draw!" he declared. "I activate EX-Mode Activate! This grants my monster an extra 1000 attack points and the piercing effect," he explained as the warrior's sword began to change into a more stream-lined sword with a large blue stripe running down its body increasing its attack from 1900-2900. "Now attack his wolf friend with Omnislash!"

The swordsman jumped into the air slashing away at the werewolf creature about thirteen times before bringing the sword above his head and slashing downwards destroying the creature and reducing Crypt's life points from 2600-1200. Gaia looked at Crypt as after the attack finished Crypt was in a state of near hysteria and held onto his arm as his back began to tense.

"What is your problem?" Gaia asked.

"Nothing," Crypt started. "Just giving into another monstrous feature I have," he finished removing his coat revealing a bulge inside a black buttoned shirt. Taking the glove off his hand and revealing his claws from the Death Raptor Crypt scratched a large tear in to his shirt from which a large wing shot out of made of a leather material and scattered feathers.

"What in the world?" Gaia exclaimed looking at the wing which stretched to about six feet long into the air.

"Seeing as how it's my turn I draw!" Crypt declared as his wing fluttered in the wind. "This wing is from a creature found in both legends of Native Americans and seen as a ferocious beast that will attack should anything get too close, and I summon it now; Cryptid-Species Thunderbird (?/?) in attack mode!" he declared summoning a large avian figure with the same leathery wings and scattered feathers wings and the head of regular an eagle that screeched in the face of the warrior controlled by Gaia. "This monster has a 1400 growth, but can be the only monster I attack with during my turn."

"Why?" Gaia asked.

"Isn't it obvious," he said. "Because it can attack you directly; this monster also gains its attack during the battle phase like Niseag, so attack Thunder Rage!" he commanded as the bird flew into the air and became engulfed in lightning and then charged through the air straight to Gaia.

"I play Cosmos Call!" Gaia declared. "With this trap card I can negate your attack, destroy your monster, and then after all that summon a monster from my deck or graveyard with DFF in its name."

The large bird began to screech in pain as its matter began to shift and was then destroyed when Gaia's deck began to shine.

"And by the final effect of Cosmos Call I can summon DFF-X Tidus (1000/2000) in attack mode!" Gaia declared summoning a warrior approximately the same age as the one before wearing a torn pair of black overalls with a yellow hooded shirt with the left sleeve torn off, and a shoulder brace and a gauntlet on the left arm.

"I end my turn," Crypt said chuckling again with his wing still fluttering in the wind.

"Why Tao?" Gaia asked after a long silence. "Why did you have to kill Tao? He had lived through so much, he had been the person who can say that he was almost killed, but more importantly he was the person who could say he would never give up, even after death."

"That's why he was the first to go," Crypt said with a hint of insanity. "He was the one who would continue to fight me."

"Why? Who are you to Tao?" Gaia asked.

"The example of someone who can survive the poison," Crypt said showing off his monstrous features. "He knew that so long as there was there even a trace of that poison that people like me and him would come after the Celestial Queen; hence our obsession with finding the power to enhance our power."

"What do you mean?"

"It's simply this," Crypt said. "The poison coursing through our vein can twist us, it makes us act like people we aren't. People like Tao aren't able to fathom the full extent of their power and hence become afraid of it and try to destroy it. But people like me appreciate this power and gladly would become monsters for the sake of our own gain no matter who we have to step on or destroy along the way. Duels like this are simply a formality."

"Formality?" Gaia asked with contempt. "You've ended Tao's, Lance's, Jason's, Trish's, Mori's, and now Ninomiya's life. That's not formalities; that's evidence of a mass murderer."

"Your point?" Crypt asked. "This poison's done wonders for me and I'll show the world what I can do with it and finally get the respect people with our condition deserve. Tao was one of them, a man who believed that this was a disease and that people like this shouldn't be around people again. He was a necessary death for my plan."

"Shut your mouth!" Gaia shouted. "I'm proud to say that Tao was probably the best friend I could've ever had; it's one of the few things that me and Aigis have in common. The other is that you deserve to be in the very thing you are named after. Draw!" he declared looking at the card in his hand. "I choose to pass my turn and allow you to make your final move."

"Final move?" Crypt asked mockingly. "You think that you can beat me on my own turn?"

"I don't think, I know!" Gaia declared confidently.

"Fine! Show me what you've got!" Crypt shouted challengingly as he drew his card and never even looked at it but cringed as he drew it. "I attack with Niseag boosting his attack to 4700, Ancient Fury!" he declared as the giant reptilian creature's attack increased from 2000-4700. "Destroy Tidus!"

The creature shot the blast of water towards the warrior just summoned by Gaia's trap who held out his arms confidently as the blast continued to come towards him.

"Now!" Gaia yelled as the warrior unsheathed a sword and looked as though he were about to slice through the blast. "Whenever Tidus battles against an enemy monster it switches its attack with the monster it battles."

"So you allowed me the chance to attack which would increase my attack to a level in which that you could switch the attacks and defeat me indefinitely?" Crypt asked.

"That's the basic idea," Gaia said. "Now, it's time to put you into the ground where you belong. Tidus, Sonic Buster!"

The young warrior smiled as he sliced right through the blast of water and reached the monster and sliced through its figure as it was surrounded by fog. The fog lifted shortly after that and revealed that the blade had sliced through Gaia who was left stunned as the large creature controlled by Crypt was left standing.

"It's strange," Crypt said. "Sometimes your eyes can play tricks on you. Just like the trap card Dense Fog. In Loch Ness, the fog can become so thick that you become unaware of what you really see. In many cases the Loch Ness Monster is mistaken for logs, otters, but in the case of this card one of the two players by the choice of the next card I draw. Should it be a monster your attack goes through and if my monster is destroyed I take damage equal to its current growth rate. But if it's a spell or trap card like the Cryptic Shield the attack id redirected towards you. So, you lose."

The young warrior remained in shock at its actions as Gaia fell to his knees with his life points dropping from 1500-0. Crypt walked up to him and grinned evilly.

"Even if I should fall the others will beat you," Gaia declared as Crypt began chanting words in an ancient language that made Gaia fall to the ground unconscious.

"One less fly to worry about," Crypt said clapping his hands together as though clapping away dust from his hand. "Who will be my next victim?" he asked himself walking back into the forest still laughing to himself.

* * *

><p>On the forest ground Gaia's motionless body began to cringe as it suddenly stood up with no emotion in its eyes. It sat itself up against a tree and drifted back into unconsciousness.<p>

Inside Gaia's mind he stood there without any emotion as he remained a transparent blue color. As he turned his head a large flash of red appeared in his mind and the two colors separated the two halves of his mind. From within the image of the red Gaia saw Aigis looking at him disapprovingly.

"I knew I should've dueled him again," Aigis said. "I would've been able to beat him had you not let _your_ emotions get the better of you."

"At least I have emotions," Gaia said. "And what do you have?"

"Nothing," Aigis answered. "That's why I always win. You allowed your anger to get the better of you so you were blind to his hulking twenty foot sea monster and hidden face down card. You lost because of your emotions. This is why I don't bother with the stuff."

"Do you even care if he gets to Destiny?" Gaia asked beginning to anger.

"In a way, no," Aigis said plainly. "What I do care about is Crypt getting away with cheating death so many times in his life that he should at least taste its cold bitter taste. But with the body we share as it is now, we can't do anything."

"Remind me why we have it in for Crypt again," Gaia said wracking his brain.

"Because of what he did to me, not you," Aigis explained.

"But what does Tao have to do with it?" Gaia asked. "His reason was way too shallow to be plausible. I have to know."

"I know," Aigis said surprising Gaia. "And I'll tell you…if you can beat me in a duel," he said activating a duel disk.

"What?" Gaia said as he found a duel disk attached to his arm as well.

"If you want the information that can possibly save Destiny and all of your little friends, why not wager it more sportingly. Since we're still on academy grounds the only way to do that is to duel," Aigis explained.

"Fine, but make sure to keep up on your end of the bargain," Gaia said activating his duel disk and then pondered what Aigis said. _"Wait, this won't work. How can I warn the others if I'm stuck inside a literally dead body? Aigis obviously has something up his sleeve, but I need to know what Tao and Crypt's connection is. No one can kill somebody for being sympathetic against his kind. I will win this duel, and I will find the truth."_

"DUEL!" the two declared in unison.

* * *

><p>Chapter twenty one complete. Another cliffhanger, aren't I the best. Well anyway, I know that the creator of Gaia has been wanting a duel between the split personality duo for a while and I found it appropriate to put it here. With the end of the arc coming be prepared to see the best and the worst of some of our characters.<p>

Next time: Gaia and Aigis duel to discover the secret connection between Tao and Crypt. Meanwhile Crypt begins his final offensive against the resistance members remaining to get to the ultimate prize, The Celestial Queen. Next time: Crusade of the Academy; Cosmos v. Chaos.


End file.
